


Magic In Our Veins

by MintMoth



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, after pacifist ending, humans with magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5308799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintMoth/pseuds/MintMoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long ago before the war that drove the monsters underground raged, humans attempted to aid the monsters in their plight. Some were turned away, some were hesitantly approved, and some were trusted wholeheartedly. Those who found themselves in that position were blessed with a small bit of magic in an attempt to bridge the gap between humans and monsters. It unfortunately did not work. However the magic lived on through the human's family lines as the monsters lived underground. It was forgotten or misunderstood, often to be kept hidden from society for fear of rejection. However now that the monsters were living on the surface once more, they remember. Toriel remembers. Maybe the humans with magic could not help during war times but perhaps they could help aid monsters during a time of peace?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Ordinary House on a Normal Street

It was just an ordinary home. Well not completely ordinary, as the lawn had a couple rather strangely shaped hedges, but the whole thing gave off a typical warm cute family home vibe. This couldn't be the right place. The home certainly matched the kind voice on the phone call earlier but there was no way anything having to do with magic would be taking place in such a sweet home. Cal looked down at the flyer held tightly in her hands. The paper had caught her eye outside of a small neighborhood bookstore. It was pretty normal looking, save for a few children's drawings along the bottom of the flyer.

"Are you a human with an affinity for magic? You are not alone! The monsters that blessed your family line are here for you now and are willing to teach you about your inherent magic. Please help us bridge the gap between humans and monsters! You have no need to fear your magic, and I will show you."

Maybe this was a hoax or a something. The woman on the phone seemed genuine as Cal had practically interrogated her on the phone call earlier. Everything just seemed too casual, it made Cal feel on edge about the whole thing. It at least had to be worth a shot though. Probably. Maybe.

She should at least stop standing in a stranger's lawn, gaping at their house like an idiot.

With a deep breath she strode to the door, leaves crunching underfoot. As she reached the porch voices could be heard from behind the thick white door, increasing in volume every now and then. Maybe this was a bad time. She should come back later. Or perhaps even never, that might be good.

No. She couldn't pass up the opportunity if this was true. Her mother had told her all she knew about the magic that flowed through her veins but had always punctuated it with the warning to never use it. There had to be more to it though, something that she just didn't understand. Before she could talk herself out of it Cal knocked on the door, silencing all the voices inside. Maybe it wasn't too late to throw herself off the porch and hide behind one of the bushes.

She successfully managed to take a step back before the door opened, turning her attention to focus on the stranger now in the entryway. "Oh! Hello there! How can I help you?" The voice was the same as the one on the phone but it seemed to belong to a woman who towered over Cal. Well, she wasn't just a woman but rather a monster woman, and she didn't really tower of Cal, though she was probably about a good foot and a half taller than the girl. The woman appeared to be some kind of goat creature donned in a warm smile and modest brown clothes. Despite being a complete stranger she managed to radiate a kind and motherly aura.

"Uhh h-hi! I saw this flyer-" Cal held it up for emphasis, "I called earlier but I wasn't sure if I uh..."

"Oh yes do come in. Three other humans have arrived so please don't worry about being alone with monsters." The woman stepped to the side and ushered the girl inside gently. "There are about, hmm, seven others whom you may meet if you decide to come again. Oh dear! I've been forgetting my manners, haven't I?" She closed the front door behind her and held her hand out, "I'm Toriel, it's very nice to have you in my home."

Cal hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit overwhelmed. "I'm Cal. Nice to meet you." She took the large furry hand in front of her and gave a small shake, noting the relief that spread over Toriel's face. Had she been worried about her first impression?

As their handshake broke Cal turned her attention to the room she was now standing in. It was a large, but still rather comfortable feeling, living room. There were pictures of various monsters- and was that a human child?- on the walls, bookcases nearly filled to the brim with books and knick knacks, a cozy recliner seated right next to a rather warm looking fireplace, various vases filled with lovely yellow flowers, and a big comfy couch with four seated strangers.

One appeared to be a girl with rather bright lavender hair who gave a very friendly wave. Cal gave a small wave back as her eyes traveled to the others. A rather bored looking boy, someone who appeared to be as nervous as her, and a child that seemed to be the one in the photos on the wall. The child smiled kindly and gave a small wave before signing hello.

"Oh!" Cal shrunk in a bit as she realized she had been louder than she intended. She timidly signed hello back, grateful that her father had taught her ASL.

"Ah yes, that one is my dear child, Frisk." Toriel strode away from the door, beaming proudly as she went to straighten up a few things on a bookcase. "There are a few others here but they are getting refreshme-"

"Tori? Did someone else arrive?" A voice came from the opposite side of the room, a little down a hallway. Another monster emerged from the hall. They appeared to be goat in origin like Toriel, but were even larger than her and donned with a rather impressive set of horns. He was followed rather abruptly but a- oh god seriously a skeleton?

"THERE'S ANOTHER HUMAN?" He nearly shouted, a very distinct tone of joy to his voice. Cal and the nervous human on the couch jumped a little bit at the sudden burst of loudness.

Toriel turned swiftly and narrowed her eyes, "Papyrus please do try to lower your volume. I'd hate to bother our guests." Her expression softened as she smiled gently, her gaze never resting on the larger goat, who seemed to deflate a bit at being ignored.

"OH! Oh, yes, I am very sorry!" The skeleton lowered his voice and brought a gloved hand up to his mouth apologetically. Cal's expression turned a bit quizzical. Why did a skeleton need gloves? Or a silly Christmas sweater in the middle of September? Come to think of it, the sweater was more out of place then the gloves, as the rest of his outfit resembled more of a Halloween costume then typical clothing.

"Um, hi hello." Cal spoke nervously to the new monsters. They had been on the surface for a couple years but they had still mostly kept to themselves as a whole, leaving Cal very unused to monsters in general still.

"It's very nice to meet you-" The large goat man went to move forward towards Cal before being beaten out by the skeleton. Papyrus was it? He clasped her hand with both of his, pulling it up from the resting place at her side.

"It is so good to meet you! I hope we can become great friends human!" Well he sure was friendly. Cal appreciated the sentiment but was still mildly put off by being face to face with a rather tall skeleton. She was used to feeling short around others, only rising to about 5'1", but the height of these monsters was fairly ridiculous. He let go of her hand and gave her a surprisingly gentle smile in response to her nervous one, probably sensing her discomfort. It was strange how he resembled more of a caricature of a skeleton then an actual one, though he wasn't some human's remains so it should have been no surprise.

"It's nice to meet you too." Cal tried to look a little bit less nervous in an attempt to be nice to someone so friendly.

Toriel moved to the middle of the room swiftly, "Come come, please have a seat by the other guests. I'd like to fully explain where I'm coming from as to ask you all to come here." She beamed as Cal made her way to the couch, sitting down next to the rather small Frisk. Papyrus sat on the arm of the couch next to her, crossing his legs over one another while mirroring Toriel's smile. The greater goat fumbled around some, unsure of exactly where he should go. Toriel sighed, "Asgore just sit in the chair." He hung his head a bit and shuffled to the recliner as she regarded him bluntly. Cal stifled a small laugh at how silly the scene was.

"Aw c'mon Tori, this doesn't need _tibia_ serious thing." The voice came to the right of Cal. She turned with a small jump to see yet another monster seated next to her, Frisk now on seated on their lap instead of the cushion. Cal pulled away in surprise, bumping into Papyrus as she did. How did another skeleton manage to sit down next to her without her knowing? Especially one big enough to have his side nearly touching her. He turned his attention to her and gave her a rather large grin in response to her surprise, as if he had just told a hilarious joke. Cal gave a small nervous grin, unsure of how to respond exactly.

"Sans! My brother, where have you been!" Papyrus put his hands on his hips in a slightly childish show of anger. Of course the first two skeletons she'd ever meet were related. Cal prayed silently that they didn't have even sneakier relations somewhere around here.

"Oh you know, around." The new skeleton gave a bit of a shrug along with a bit of a laugh at his own vague answer. Cal narrowed her eyes at the new guest, at least until she saw how positively delighted the child on his lap was at the commotion. She gave Frisk a gentle smile as their eyes met hers.

Toriel gave another small sigh, drawing the general attention back to her. "Please do not frighten our guests Sans. I feel as though this is already not the most comfortable situation for them."

"Sorry about that." He gave a small apologetic laugh, scratching the back of his head before resting it along the back of the couch. His fingers- finger bones??- grazed along Cal's back, making her move forward slightly due to the uncomfortable feeling. Did that appearifying ass just chuckle at her?

"Alright everyone, here is what I was thinking..."

+

Long ago there were two races, humans and monsters. Humans feared that which they did not understand and began to attack the monsters. Before the start of the ancient one-sided war several humans approached the monsters, requesting to aid them against the hard hearted humans. Some monsters turned them away, some cautiously agreed to their help, and others welcomed the humans wholeheartedly. The special few who were trusted completely were blessed with a tiny bit of a monster's own magic to have as their own, living forever in their family line. It was a hopeful, yet ultimately futile, attempt to create a bridge between the feuding races.

The monsters had fled into hiding but the blessed humans remained. They adjusted to hiding their magic, denying it when necessary. As the years went by some had forgotten about the origins of their abilities, some forgetting the very magic in their blood.

But Toriel remembered. And she knew there were humans who remembered, who knew of the magic in their veins. If they did not help during war times, perhaps the ancient bond could help relations during these peaceful times. Even if it did not, maybe she could at least help who she could, allowing them to love and understand a very special aspect of themselves.

So she decided to put out a flyer. It's best to start small right? Every other week she'd have the special humans over so she could teach them, if they so chose. Granted, it was ambitious, but she thought she should at least try. The others had given her encouragement and even offered to help her teach the humans, increasing her hopes of a positive impact. She had still been shocked when she had received the first phone call.

+

"So really that's it! I'd like to have you all over- with others of course- to learn about magic every other week or so." Toriel made sweeping hand motions as she spoke. "But most importantly I can try to teach you how to control your own magic. It's nothing to be afraid of." Once again a very motherly look spread across her face.

"That sounds awesome! My magic is so hit and miss, I'd love to be able to understand it!" The girl with lavender hair spoke up first, obviously very enthusiastic about the idea.

The bored looking boy shrugged lightly, "I don't really know if this is for me, but thanks for the offer lady." Toriel nodded understandingly in response to him, a touch of sadness to her eyes.

"I-I um.. feel that might be my case as well. I came just to be sure, but I thank you for the offer." The very nervous individual smiled apologetically as they spoke very softly.

"I completely understand, but I thank you both for hearing me out." The gentle goat woman gave a slight bow to them. "If you ever change your minds I will still be here, though I do wish you the best."

As the two started shuffling to get up the stout skeleton turned towards Cal, "And what about you? You stickin' around or leavin' too, kid?" She pulled away, unaware that she had settled back into the couch near him. The sudden attention had her fumble over her words a bit.

"Uh I um.." She looked to each of the monster's faces, seeing each of their hopeful expressions. Except for Sans, who wore the same big grin he had upon his face since she had met him, though this one seemed to be a tad bit malicious. Cal narrowed her eyes at him once more, getting another small chuckle from him before turning her attention towards the woman who had invited her there.

"I'll do it."


	2. Small Talk

Since she decided to stick around, about a good 20 minutes earlier, the taller skeleton had not left Cal be. He certainly had good intentions, asking her about herself in between going on about the things he was interested in. He continued placing more and more of the available snacks on her plate as he spoke to her. She had only eaten a small sandwich triangle and a sugar cookie and yet he kept piling things on absentmindedly. 

"I see, I see. So your older brother lives an entire five hours away from here?!" His jaw dropped comically as he put his hands up to hold the sides of his skull. He shook his head sadly, "I could not imagine being so far away from my brother."

"Aw Pap, that's im _pasta_ bly sweet of you." Cal jumped a bit as the voice came from right beside her, not even giving her time to respond. How did the other skeleton manage to keep sneaking up on her?

"I TAKE IT BACK." Papyrus yelled, obviously not a fan of the pun as he made a rather silly expression in his anger. Cal laughed a bit before using her free hand to cover her mouth for fear of upsetting him or possibly coming off as rude.

"Wow, are you planning on trying to fatten her up or something?" Sans raised an eyebrow- how did a skeleton have eyebrows??- at Cal's piled high plate of cookies and snacks. "I know you wanted people to stay for Tori but this is a bit excessive." He chuckled a bit to himself.

Papyrus turned back towards the two of them, having previously been looking away dramatically. "I would NEVER do such a thing!" He gasped equally as dramatically. "Someone as great as I would never try such a trick! Of course they would stay due to my natural magnetism! Plus I do not think.. Humans can eat quite that much Sans. Though I'm not a human. Cal, is that how it works?"

She giggled a bit at the sheer absurdity of the idea, "Not exactly like that. I'd have to eat tons more then this to get big enough to get stuck here. Like, over the course of a few years." She gave a little shrug. "I'd be more worried about taking advantage of Miss Toriel's hospitality by then."

"Oh! Do not worry! Everything was made and purchased to be eaten, so take as much as you like!" Toriel responded from the couch, obviously not fully aware of the conversation as she was locked into one with the lavender haired girl. She gave a kind grin before turning back to the girl and giving a small apology for the interruption.

"Though perhaps it is my fault for giving you so much..." Papyrus began to remove things from the buckling paper plate. "It'd be a shame if our wonderful hospitality made you ill! Or too big to move, if that can indeed happen to humans. Though my brother is twice as big as you and can come and go just fine. Hmmm..." he stopped his removal of the snacks and brought his hand to his chin, closing his eye sockets contemplatively.

"I would never be able to eat that much so don't worry about it." 

Sans gave a thoughtful nod to her response. "Same here, I just haven't got the stomach for it." Cal made a rather abrupt SNNRK sound and covered her mouth quickly in an attempt to quiet herself, receiving a rather happy grin from the skeleton beside her.

"GOODBYE MY BROTHER." Papyrus made another ridiculous expression in his anger before putting his arms up in an over dramatic surrender before walking off to converse with the two on the couch. Cal was glad she was already laughing so it wouldn't seem as though she was laughing at his actions.

As her voice quieted down and the others conversation picked back up she stood beside Sans in a rather awkward silence. She picked up another cookie from her still very full plate and began nibbling on it. After a few moments she turned toward the skeleton still standing beside her. He seemed to be watching the others talking with a surprisingly soft expression on his face before dropping the look as he turned back to Cal. She flinched a tiny bit and gave him a nervous smile at his wide gap-toothed grin. "Soo-" her eyes darted around the living room anxiously, refusing to meet the two intimidating lights inside his sockets, "What have you guys been doing for a living the past couple years?" Great question Cal, just remind the scary skeleton about how humans literally had them trapped underground for who knows how long.

He gave a nonchalant shrug, "Pretty much what you'd expect. Adjusting to things took a while but I got a couple part time jobs, Pap's a chef at this place across town, Tori's a teacher now but who-" He was interrupted by the sound of small feet hitting the hardwood and quickly tapping over. 

Frisk ran over to the two of them and began signing excitedly. Cal looked a bit confused, unable to pick up on everything when it was signed that fast. Frisk stared at her expectantly for a moment before a look of realization crossed their face and they began to sign slower this time. _"She's the best teacher! She's over at the elementary school and everyone in class loves her! It makes me really happy because I love her a lot."_ They went on to sign about all the sweet things she did as a teacher with a beaming grin.

"She sounds like she's really great!" Cal smiled gently at the young child. If Toriel was their teacher, with how old Frisk looked they couldn't be more then twelve.

"Yeah, she's pretty wonderful." Sans chimed in, sounding a bit wistful. Cal gave him a curious look, questioning his tone, only to receive a halfhearted shrug.

The conversation was broken by a melodic tune rising from Cal's pocket. "Oh! Crap hang on." She withdrew he slender phone and tapped open the text message from her mother. "Oh, sorry it's my mom. I gotta get home." She strode over to Toriel swiftly, "I'm really sorry to interrupt but I need to get going. I've got work tomorrow and I live about an hour out so my Mom's a bit worried..." Cal gave a sad smile, a bit disappointed to have to leave already. She had been having more fun the she initially anticipated. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry that you had to drive so far. But thank you so much for coming! I look forward to seeing you again!" Toriel stool from the couch, preparing to walk the short girl to the front door.

"It was awesome to meet you! Let's talk next time!" The purple haired girl beamed excitedly and waved goodbye.

"Ah yes, thank you so much for-" Asgore began before once again being interrupted by the very loud and enthusiastic Papyrus.

"Thank you so much for coming human!" He walked to Cal with his arms wide open. "I feel as if we are already on the start to becoming very good friends!" His arms wrapped around the girl, getting a small squeak of surprise from her. Huh, he didn't feel nearly as pokey or hard as he looked. It seems there were multiple differences between them and the skeletons she had seen on display in class, though to be fair those were human skeletons and not magical monster ones. He released her and held her at arm's length. "I can not wait for you to visit again! Perhaps you could come by my house sometime just to chat. I could cook dinner- OH HOW IT WOULD BE LIKE OLD TIMES!" He pretended to cry, "Do you remember when I first cooked for you dear human Frisk?"

The child gave a small giggle and smiled warmly up at the tall Papyrus. _"Your cooking has gotten a lot better since then."_

Papyrus put his hands on his hips and held his head high. "I'm always getting better at everything I do dear human!" Another giggle came from the child. "But yes, perhaps our home could be visited next time as well!"

Cal still felt nervous but she smiled as warmly as she could. "Yeah, that'd be nice to do sometime. Probably." As she started moving to the door the small Frisk stopped her with their held out arm, requesting a handshake. This kid was too cute.

Cal wrapped her hand around theirs, letting them give a quick shake before withdrawing their hand to sign, _"He's really nice and their home is really fun. I think you'd like it. I can come along too if you're nervous. But I'll see you later, thank you for coming!"_ Cal nodded happily in response. This kid was going to be the death of her.

"We'll be seeing you." Sans said farewell last, keeping his hands in his pockets and keeping his distance as his expression seemed rather smug. He had been fine earlier, why was he being all mysterious again? Cal's eyebrows knit a bit in frustration. Maybe he just wasn't good with new people or something. To be fair Cal wasn't very great either, as she had just demonstrated for the past half hour.

"Yeah I'll uh, see you guys later. Um, two weeks from now right?" Her attention went to Toriel once more who was standing patiently beside the rather large front door.

"Yes that is when I will begin with the lessons. However if you have 'hit it off' with anyone, feel free to simply visit whenever." The woman gave another warm motherly smile as she opened the front door. "I do hope that you had a good time today, I look forward to seeing you again!"

Cal strode to the door, "Thank you so much for having me. I'll definitely be back. Goodbye everyone!" She turned and waved to the inside of the house, receiving a chorus of goodbyes before the door was gingerly shut. It had been a while since anyone had regarded her so warmly. It was sad to leave so soon.

She put her hands in her jacket pockets and blew her fringe out of her eyes before turning to head back to her small car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that Asgore will actually get to speak and him being interrupted is just a short lived joke.


	3. Magic

The two weeks flew by faster then Cal had expected. It was simply a blur of work, school, and sleep until the day before she was to go back to that welcoming home. Her nerves distracted her all during the day and managed to cut into her sleep. Yeah she had already met most of the people who would be there but it was the day things were going to get real.

She woke early, feeling physically good, thank god. She went about her daily routine, brushing her teeth and hair, putting on a small bit of makeup, and eating some reheated leftovers for breakfast before deciding to put on a casual pair of ripped jeans and a plain tee shirt. She donned her typical hoodie and laced up her shoes, time to hit the road.

+

The house looked the same as it did before, though perhaps there were more leaves on the fading lawn as fall rolled on. She strode up the sidewalk once more, wondering if the sight before her would eventually become something familiar to her. As she reached the porch a loud crash came from behind the door along with some yelling. Cal quickly knocked on the door, "Is everyone alright in there?!" It took a moment for her to realize how stupid that sounded.

After a few moments of shuffling and light talking the door opened in front of her. "Oh! Cal, it is you. Sorry if we startled you..." Toriel spoke softly, just as big and fuzzy as Cal remembered. "A vase was broken, do not worry. But do come in, just please don't step by the fire place for a while."

"Oh dang, I hope everyone is alright." Cal stepped inside quickly, looking about the cozy living room. Her eyes fell upon a shock of red hair. This was someone she hadn't met last time. They stood up, large pieces of the broken vase in their blue hands. Yeah, blue.

"Dammit Tori I'm really sorry about that." They turned to the doorway, expression apologetic despite having a mouth full of shark teeth. Their face switched to surprise as their eyes- or rather eye as one was behind an eye patch- widened. "WOAH HEY THERE!"

Cal stiffened in surprise. OK, this fish person would probably not kill her but boy she sure looked like she could. Cal took a visible swallow and tried to smile. "H-hi..."

There was some light banging down the hall, grabbing both of their attentions as it continued to get closer and closer. "UNDYNE I GOT THE VACUUM." Papyrus barreled into the room urgently, vacuum clattering behind him. He quickly flipped the machine on and started dragging it across the floor in a panic.

"NO C'MON YOU GOTTA DO IT LIKE THIS." The fish woman wrenched the vacuum out of the skeleton's hands and started dragging it around wildly, occasionally picking it up to bang it back down.

A rather loud giggle came from the couch, snapping up Cal's attention. The purple haired girl sat there beside Frisk and a little girl who looked younger then them. "Undyne I told you the vase was going to break." She laughed harder as the fish responded with a frustrated yell and more banging of the vacuum. 

Toriel sighed and shut the door quickly as she went over to help the two clean up after themselves. Cal watched them for a minute before walking over to the couch. "Oh so um, Undyne? Broke the vase?"

The girl nodded. "Well, it was gonna either be her or someone else. The vase was just gonna break today. Shame it was a really pretty one." She gave a light sigh before smiling at Cal. "I didn't get to talk to you last time, sorry about that. I'm Taylor, nice to talk to you." She waved and laughed a little.

"Oh, yeah you were talking to Toriel last time, weren't you?" Cal gave her a smile before giving Frisk a small wave. She noted the little girl sitting close to them. "Oh, who's your friend Frisk?"

The little girl ducked behind them, embarrassed. _"Her name is Airi. Her parents are in the kitchen with Asgore. She's really shy."_ Cal gave the girl a little wave as the girl peaked out at her briefly.

"Aww yeah isn't she super cute?" Taylor gave Airi a small wave as well. "Everyone here is pretty great though." She motioned towards the trio previously attempting to clean the carpet who were now Toriel vacuuming and the other two watching. "Papyrus is pretty rad especially." 

"OH THANK YOU HUMAN!" He spoke loudly, possibly attempting to be heard over the vacuum despite it turning off mid sentence. "I am pretty 'rad' aren't I not?"

"Nah you're pretty cool but I think I'm in the lead here." Undyne shook her head dramatically before giving a flex in the couch's direction. "If I hadn't broken Toriel's vase I'd lift up the couch with ALL OF YOUR ON IT just to show you how cool I am."

"Please do not, I would really appreciate it if you reigned it in a bit." The poor goat woman sighed and started putting the vacuum up, rolling it down the hallway in front of her. "I will put this up and then we can begin the lessons."

"You guys ready for the les _sans_?" Once again the pun came from beside Cal, making her jump as Taylor gave a light snort of laughter. "Woah kid, still jumpy?" He gave Cal a quizzical look. 

"Well you keep appearing out of no where so can you blame me?" She gave him a strained grin, noting a touch of malice on his face once again. He was trying to freak her out wasn't he? What an asshole.

"Yeah he's gonna keep doing that." Taylor nodded to herself. "You'll eventually get used to it though."

"How do you know?" Cal's attention went back to her, looking confused.

Taylor gave a ridiculous hand fluttering motion, "Magic."

"Oh yes! Speaking of," Toriel strode in to the room once again, "we need to explain our magic to one another so there are no surprises and so we can understand how best to help one another." Cal stiffened. "Us monsters are used to magic and rarely are we surprised by others, but I know humans are not used to magic so perhaps it would be best to have everyone on the same page before we start. There are a few other humans I'll be having here but I'm not sure if they'll be on the same schedule as the three of you, but if they show we will have to explain each others magic to them. I apologize for the inconvenience." She gave a small bow in apology before taking seat in the arm chair. 

Taylor sprung energetically to her feet, "OK I already told Undyne and Papyrus who did not believe me but I will go first." She shot a fake angry look to the two standing by the bookcase. The tall skeleton gave her an apologetic look and Undyne returned the look. "I can sometimes tell the future." She wiggled her fingers around comically. "Not in a 100% way since time is fluid but I can see a really high possibility. Like, I knew the vase was going to break today when I saw it, I just wasn't sure how until I saw those two rough housing by and it and it was like 'ohhh that's how it breaks.'"

Toriel nodded. "That's rather unusual but I can see how it would be strange to have suddenly happen. Is there anything else?"

The girl shook her head, purple hair flying about. "Nah, that's it. I just sometimes see something or hear something and it's like 'oh man this thing is gonna happen.' It's a little weird but I'd like to figure out how to turn it off or on, that'd be pretty cool."

"Sounds a little spooky, can you see if people are gonna die and stuff?" Undyne gave her a curious look. Taylor quickly responded with a shrug.

"NO THAT'D BE TOO HORRIBLE I HOPE SHE DOES NOT!" Papyrus hid his eyes and swung himself about. 

"Oh Papyrus please do be careful." Toriel reached out, placing a hand upon his arm to calm him. He gave her a sheepish look and quickly stopped. "I'd have little Airi speak next but she's quite shy. Her parents are accompanying her due to her age. They've told me that she can create small flames that are more warming then anything else." The large goat woman gave the little girl a gentle smile. "I believe her ancestor was the human I put my faith in to bless, so I'm very happy to have her here." The little girl peaked out from Frisk's side to give her a smile, understanding her words. 

"Oh wow, that's so cool." Taylor gave the girl an excited look as the others spoke a chorus of excited comments about the small girl being there. She grew red and quickly hid behind Frisk's arm again. 

"Please calm down everyone, you're upsetting the little one." Toriel fussed, "I'd teach her father as well but he seems to have lost the ability to use his magic at all." Her face grew sad for a moment before taking a breath and turning to Cal. "What about you Cal?"

She shuffled a bit, feeling everyone's eyes on her, but mostly feeling the eye sockets beside her focusing on her shoulder. "Uhh well... I guess the best way to describe it would be um... A shield?" She shrugged. "If something or uh... Someone tries to hurt me or something it just kinda appears. That's it."

"OH WOAH so like, nothing can hurt you?!" Taylor yelled along with Papyrus and Undyne, though her voice was louder. "That is so cool do you get in fights and are untouchable and totally kick ass and-" Her voice melded in with others at this point.

"N-no I have to think about it typically but sometimes it does just happen." Cal smiled nervously, not used to the attention. "I usually don't even have it happen but my mom and brother can do it too so she taught us about it a little. Though it was mostly to never use it." 

"It's good that your family line was open to understanding magic though!" Toriel seemed happy at the idea, excited about the idea of humans trying to understand the magic they can use. "I hope it helped you as you grew up."

"Anything else you can do?" The voice came from beside her. She gave a small jump, not startled by his presence this time, but his question. Had she been suspicious in the way she spoke? Cal turned to meet his gaze, the lights in his skull only mere pinpricks now.

"N-no. Why would there be anything else?" She gave a small grin, trying to play it cool. His grin widened and his eye sockets seemed to narrow with suspicion. He was really observant wasn't he? Maybe it was from watching everyone all the time. Cal only knew enough about him to assume, but either way she hoped he wouldn't press the issue.

"HEY HUMAN THINK FAST!" Cal tore her eyes away from Sans in time to see Undyne throw a book at her fiercely. Cal cried out in surprise and brought her arms up to cover her face defensively. The book sailed towards her but seemed to stop short as it appeared to hit a wall, small light pink lights trailing along the manifested magic like a small electricity surge as the book hit against it before falling to the floor in front of Cal. "THAT WAS SO COOL!"

"Please don't throw things at me." Cal lowered her arms, a nervous smile plastered on her face as a deep sigh of relief exited her. "I am really not used to that wow."

"Yes please Undyne refrain from doing that it's dangerous!" Toriel rose from her seat and walked over to Cal quickly. "Cal are you alright? I'm so sorry about that, she can be very enthusiastic sometimes."

"Y-yeah I'm alright. I get being excited." She gave a small laugh. "My brother and I used to do stuff like that, yeah." She shuffled about nervously as the focus was on her once again.

Toriel gave her a smile before turning her attention to the others. "Alright, if we can refrain from anything like that happening again, let me fetch Asgore and Alphys and we can all explain our magic to our guests."

+

Cal had learned about the amazing things that the monsters could do, as well as meeting a new monster. A small dinosaur named Alphys who was just as nervous to meet Cal as Cal was to meet her. The two got off well though, chatting about TV shows between talking about the other monsters. It seems she was dating the rather loud and rough Undyne, but Cal just supposed that the two of them balanced each other out. 

She learned from Papyrus rambling that Sans probably had teleporting abilities, explaining why he just appeared and disappeared at intervals. Cal felt it would definitely be something that she'd come to regret him being able to do. Though maybe not as much if he used it mainly for comedy, as it was seeming like as the skeleton let out puns and quips whenever he felt the need. It was a shame that he was so hard to read since Cal was rather enjoying his jokes as she seemed to be one of the only ones regularly laughing, much to Papyrus' exasperation.

Toriel explained how the monster's magic passed on to the humans and the intricacies of how it works relevant to them. As she went on in a rather teacherly manner everyone snacked on sandwiches that Frisk had helped make with love and care. Deviled eggs and cookies were offered along side by the large goat man, resulting in some rather awful egg puns that Cal tried to stifle laughs at, hoping to not annoy Toriel as she attempted to continue teaching despite Papyrus' angry protests at his brother's jokes.

The day had began with her feeling so nervous but once again she had been lulled into a comfortable state, enjoying everyone's company. It was all too soon when Toriel announced that it was time everyone should be heading out, the sun being close on to setting.

"Oh, I guess Airi and her parents did leave quite a while ago.." Cal looked at the time and sighed. "And Frisk did get to bed. Wow I didn't realize I'd stayed so late. Mom's probably getting to bed soon." She looked up to see Alpyhs' quizzical look. "Oh she's a librarian but does like, filing and stuff so she goes in really early."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry to have kept you so late." Toriel gave her an apologetic look. "Perhaps I should have ended things sooner, though we did get caught up longer then I thought."

"U-um... Maybe you could st-stay at our place? If y-you wanted to watch something or j-just hang out... I don't know. Sorry." Alphys started with her offer but ended up growing red and covering her face as she trailed off with mumbled apologies.

"YEAH let's get the nerd over at our pla-" Undyne started before being interrupted by Papyrus who seemed to be quite good at talking in the middle of sentences.

"NO I HAD ASKED THE HUMAN CAL FIRST IF SHE IS STAYING ANYWHERE IT IS WITH I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" He pointed up to the sky and puffed out his chest enthusiastically. "Though she'd be staying with Sans too I suppose since he lives there as well but she would be my guest." He held his hand out to Cal expectantly. "SHALL WE BE OFF HUMAN?"

Cal stared at him blankly for a moment. "I hadn't been planning on staying the night out so I don't have anything to change in to." 

"Do not worry human I have many clothes in my closet that you are welcome to sleep in!" Papyrus nodded to himself at his great idea. "You can follow me in your car so you can leave whenever you like in the morning! Oh it's been too long since I've had a good sleepover! We can watch movies and eat snacks and stay up talking!" 

"Papyrus you had us over like last week." Undyne motioned to herself and Alphys, who was still hiding her face in embarrassment.

"Well you two are over enough that it is less special. Although still very enjoyable and I love having you over." Papyrus spoke happily. "BUT ALRIGHT GRAB YOUR THINGS AND WE SHALL GET OUT OF TORIEL'S HAIR CAL."

Cal turned her attention to Sans to see if he'd provide some objection since he seemed to still not be the biggest fan of her. His expression tightened uncomfortably but he gave his tall brother a smile. "If you'd like to have her over that's fine with me bro."

Papyrus let out a happy gasp, "I knew you'd be fine with it Sans! Oh we are going to have such a fun time aren't we Cal?!" He turned to her expectantly, an excited look on his face.

Cal opened her mouth to respond, hesitating as she saw a bit of nervousness in the skeleton's expression. There was no way she had a choice in the matter was there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well let's get this show on the road. The first two chapters are a bit short but that's why I'm posting three of them right off the bat. I swear it will pick up but I needed all that introductory nonsense to begin with. Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Sleepover

"WELCOME TO OUR HOME HUMAN CAL!"

The girl hesitantly stepped inside after the home owners. It was smaller then she expected, though she may have just inherently assumed it would be similar to Toriel's spacious house for some reason. The door had opened into a very homey living room with an overstuffed couch, a rather large TV, and a bookcase full of all sorts of odds and ends. There was an open doorway on the the right side of the back wall, looking like it opened up to a kitchen, and two doors beside a staircase on the left side of the room. 

"It's really comfortable feeling." She smiled at the skeleton towering over her and giving her a huge grin. "Thanks for having me over. Uhh.. Would I just um, be on the couch then?" She motioned towards the rather large sofa.

Papyrus nodded, "That's the only space we have for guests I'm afraid. But worry not! I can stay down stairs with you if you like!" He did a dramatic pose as if him sleeping on the floor was something heroic.

"Nah it's alright, I wouldn't want to keep you from your bed." In truth Cal was still very nervous about staying the night in someone's house who she had only met twice. Maybe they could take up texting or something so this would be easier if he chose to do this again. Curse work for not having her in tomorrow.

"If you are sure." He gave her a sad look, probably a bit upset that he wouldn't be able to stay up talking to her as much as he liked. "Let me get some bedding for you, and perhaps a blanket for me if you do not mind watching a movie with me before bed?" He strode over to the door closest to the staircase, opening it and revealing it to be a closet with various blankets, pillows, coats, and what looked to be three extra copies of the shorter skeleton's fluffy hoodie. He pulled a blue plush blanket and a white pillow from the shelves before pulling out a pale green blanket as well. Undyne said she and Alphys had stayed over, was that why there was so much bedding in the closet?

Papyrus walked over to the couch and simply tossed everything on top of it before placing a fist into his open hand as if he had remembered something. "Oh yes! That's right, snacks! Sans, can we have some of your chips with our movie?"

"Eh, if you like. It wouldn't put a chip in my shoulder." Cal could practically hear the accompanying shrug in his voice. He walked out from behind her as the other skeleton ran to the kitchen with a loud groan. As he began to ascend the stairs Cal gave him a quizzical look. 

"Aren't you uh, going to hang out too?"

"Nah, Pap invited you. Not me." He turned around and gave her that malicious grin she had already become familiar with. This time she chose to stay her ground and attempt to shrug it off, not letting him get under her skin as he intended. 

"Alright, suit yourself." She gave him a shrug back, mimicking his typical action.

"Yeah sorry I'm all _tux_ ed out tonight."

A smile spread on her face despite her best efforts, "Well you can _cummerbund_ back down if you feel like hanging out."

A soft chuckle escaped him, "It might be more fun without me, I'd just be _loafer_ ing around."

As Cal opened her mouth to retort the taller skeleton burst from the kitchen, bags of chips in his arms, "PLEASE STOP I CAN NOT TAKE IT YOU BOTH ARE TEN TIMES WORSE THEN SANS ON HIS OWN!" Cal laughed abruptly at Papyrus's plight, one arm wrapping around herself as the other went to cover her mouth.

"Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help myself." She calmed down and gave him a smile as an apology. "Sans was going to skip out on hanging out so I was giving him a bit of a hard time." It wasn't quite the truth but it was close enough.

"Oh, did you not want to watch a movie with us Sans?" Papyrus seemed to be a bit let down, making a sadder expression cross his brother's face. 

"Nah, sorry I'm feeling pretty tired tonight. I hope you guys have fun." Sans gave a small wave before heading back up the stairs, this time looking a bit let down instead of defiant. It seemed like he had a hard time saying no to his brother but was willing to force himself to say no just to stay away from Cal. If she hadn't felt uncomfortable already she would now. What had she done to him anyways?

"Well, we can still have fun at least?" She had nothing against Papyrus and he seemed to be very genuine in his actions so she should try to relax like she did at Toriel's and have fun. "What movie were you thinking of watching?"

"Oh!" The skeleton's face spread into a grin once more at the prospect of a fun night. "I'm not quite sure. I have excellent taste in movies but we've gotten the human Netflix so there's many movies to choose from. Perhaps you could pick one if you'd like?"

"Hmmm. How do you feel about animated movies?" Cal had always had a soft spot for the wonders of animation. It was so much easier to find things with magical captivating stories in them.

"I LOVE THEM!" He placed the chip bags on the floor in front of the couch and grabbed the remote, turning on the TV excitedly. It was obvious that he was in a better mood now despite his brother leaving him to have fun alone with Cal.

She strode over to the couch as he selected what he needed on the TV to get where he needed to go to access his Netflix account. She moved the blankets to the side so she could sit on the couch without sitting on top of them. Taking the very corner she pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she watched Papyrus select the account named THE GREAT P. Oh he was certainly cute, that was for sure. As the movies pulled up Cal noticed it was all cartoons and kid's movies. Perfect to choose from. He turned his attention towards her and stuck the remote out at arms length. "Here you are Cal. You choose something to watch and I will fetch some sleeping clothes for you!" She gingerly took the remote from his hand and watched as he quickly dashed up the stairs, very audibly throwing open a door after the sound of him stomping up the stairs quelled.

She chuckled a little before turning her attention to the television. It was mostly either movies she had seen too many times or things she had not seen yet and knew next to nothing about. After passing a stretch of Disney movies she realized what to put on, a classic that she had watched nearly a thousand times a child but hadn't seen in a while. It'd be fun to watch again, especially if Papyrus had yet to see it. As if on queue Cal heard a door shut loudly and thumping down the stairs, she prayed he didn't wake up as loud as he was being right now. She had a feeling he was an early riser.

"Alright Cal! I have found some comfortable sleeping clothes! Or at least I hope so. I do not know quite what humans like to sleep in, only what I've seen on tv..." He glanced to the side as he spoke as if embarrassed by the notion of him not understanding something. He handed her a couple garments before pointing to the door next to the closet. "That's the bathroom! I feel it would be the most comfortable place to change." A small blush crossed his face. Holy shit he was literally red to the bone. "Oh! Though, if you'd like me to get different clothes just let me know!"

Cal unfurled the clothes in her arms curiously. She found a large white tee shirt with TOTALLY RAD written across the front and a pair of red shorts that said COOL across the butt. "No these are awesome I am completely alright with wearing them." 

"OH I'M GLAD!" He laughed happily with his hands on his hips, posing like he had solved an age old riddle. He was enthusiastic and fun and it was very easy to catch it from him, Cal felt. "Did you find a movie while I was gone?" 

"Oh yeah, have you seen Disney's Hercules?" She rose from the couch to head to the bathroom to change, pausing to read the skeleton's reaction. 

"I have not actually, but I do rather enjoy the Disney movies!"

"OK oh my god it's really great. I used to watch it all the time when I was little, you'll love it. Just uh, one minute let me go change my clothes." Cal pointed to the door and walked over to it quickly, not wanting to waste time before the movie.

She opened the door to reveal a very small bathroom, which made sense to Cal since she didn't know why skeletons would need a bathroom for themselves. The door shut behind her as the small overhead light flickered on. There seemed to be a bathtub at the end of the room, a toilet, a rack of towels, and a small sink with a mirror above it, all rather standard fare. Cal sat on top of the closed toilet and untied her shoes, kicking them off before going about changing. The shorts fit her rather well, though they showed off quite a bit more leg then she would typically be comfortable with. She could just cover herself with a blanket though she figured. The shirt was a little big on her but that didn't matter since large sleeping shirts were the best. Cal folded up the clothes she had been wearing and put her shoes on top of the pile, picking it up and heading out of the bathroom.

"Everything fits great, thanks for letting me borrow some clothes." She closed the door behind her and sat her clothing pile in front of the arm of the sofa closest to the front door, out of the way but still close to her. 

"Of course they do! I, Papyrus, picked them out for you! Though I am still glad that they fit." He posed heroically once more before dropping the pose to laugh sheepishly. "I waited to start the movie, would you be alright with jumping right in to it now?" He gave her an excited grin. 

"Yeah go ahead. I've seen it a lot so you didn't have to wait for me, but thanks." She gave him a smile as she sat back down on the couch, this time pulling the blue blanket over her knees. Papyrus hit play and happily plopped down in the middle of the couch next to her feet.

"Would you like some chips human? I have an assortment, thanks to Sans." He reached over and held up the three bags he had gathered earlier.

"Umm, I'm fine with any of the flavors actually, it's really whichever you'd like to have." Cal gave him a small smile and settled in as the movie's opening song began. Maybe staying over wasn't such a bad thing?

+

Cal's eyes fluttered open gently, small noises in the room rousing her from sleep. She blinked a bit in confusion, slowly remembering that she was not in her house and that she had spent the night watching a movie with Papyrus. She had began to nodd off about halfway through, arranging the bedding given to her in a comfortable way to lay down on as she curled up on the couch, sinking into the cushions and drifting off. The tv case a light glow over the room, allowing her to see that the skeleton in question had fallen asleep splayed out across the floor. Another figure was illuminated, proving to be Sans as Cal's eyes focused against the light. He was pulling the extra blanket across his brother gingerly.

His eyes very obviously met Cal's as they cut through the darkness, their dull light shining from within his skull. "Hey." He whispered only loud enough for his voice to carry to her ears. It would have been creepy if she hadn't just woken up proving her to still be very groggy.

"Hey." Cal covered her mouth for a small yawn. "Hate to break it to you but you're too late to join in on the fun. Shouldn't have been _tie_ d up."

Sans let out a very soft laugh, "Kid I'm pretty sure we're past suit puns by now."

She gave a small sleepy shrug. "Tough crowd." Her eyes drooped down as she attempted to blink back tiredness, staring at the skeleton who was just standing there. "Why do you not like me?" 

"Because you're human."

That was it? "The others are human too you know, why not be rude to them?"

"Papyrus didn't take as much of a shining to the others as you, kid."

She scoffed, "I'm not going to do anything to hurt him, if that's what you're thinking. If I was I wouldn't be here right now." Another yawn escaped her. "He's really sweet, and yeah I know that you know that."

He sighed. "Doesn't matter. You just keep yourself out of trouble and I'll leave you alone. I'm not interested in whatever it is you're selling." 

"I'm not selling anything what the hell.. Oh wait you mean like, figuratively or something. Fuck, I'm too tired for this." Cal rolled over on to her back and brought her arms up, placing her hands over her eyes as the blanket tossed about over her. One of her legs fell from the couch and from under the blanket, her foot lightly grazing some part of Papyrus before she brought it back up quickly, not wanting to wake him. "Oh shit, sorry." She spoke to the still sleeping skeleton, putting her foot firmly on the couch, knee to the sky.

"Wow you are impressively tired." Sans gave a small laugh, alerting Cal to the fact that he was still here. " _Drop dead_ tired I'd say."

Cal pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, glaring at the ceiling before turning her head to give the look at him. "Oh my god, shut the fuck up man. I told you I'm too tired for this. Just like, let me sleep. Who even knows if I'll do this again and ugh like, aren't you worried about waking Papyrus up? Be a dick to me in the morning or something please."

He looked a bit taken aback by her statement, it possibly being the most she had ever spoken to him. Of course it had to be when she was half asleep and possessing less of a filter. Before she could realize what she had said and apologize his typical grin spread back across his face. "Alright, alright. I'll leave you be. Sleep tight, sweetheart." He waved with his hand still in his pocket before trudging to and up the stairs, leaving the two alone in the living room.

Cal stared at the spot he had previously occupied, still confused about his actions. At least he had left her alone to get back to sleep. One last yawn and she rolled over to face the couch cushion, closing her eyes and welcoming sleep.


	5. Friend Date

Cal awoke once more, the smell of cooking food in the air causing her to stir. She found herself wrapped cozily in the blue blanket, not quite how as she remembered her only being half under it when she fell back asleep. She sat up and let it fall from her, giving a rather loud yawn before stretching her arms high into the air.

"CAL YOU'RE AWAKE JUST IN TIME FOR BREAKFAST!" Papyrus called from the kitchen happily, emerging in a pink Kiss The Cook Apron and holding a spatula. "I'm making a more traditional human breakfast, eggs and bacon. I hope you like it!" 

"Oh wow thank you so much." Cal gave him a surprised look, obviously not expecting breakfast on her account. "It smells really great! It's actually what woke me up." She gave a sheepish laugh and tossed the blanket off of herself as she prepared to get up off the sofa.

"Why of course it does, I am the one who made it!" He gave one of his patented dramatic poses before beaming happily. "I'm glad you're looking forward to it!" The popping noises of the bacon caught his attention, drawing him back into the kitchen quickly.

Cal stood, stretching once more before walking into the kitchen. It was pretty roomy, the right half and back wall being counter tops and cooking spaces while the back wall seemed to have an in-kitchen pantry and the left most space had a small dining table. Sans sat at one of the chairs, head in his hand as he looked rather tired, possibly not used to being awake so early. As Cal walked to the table she caught his attention, giving a small wave her way. "Hey legs-for-days."

She quickly looked down at her bare legs, remembering how much of them Papyrus' shorts were showing off. She suddenly felt very self-conscious about her exposed skin. "Hey shut up, my legs aren't even that long." She pulled the shirt down a little past the shorts in a futile attempt to hide her legs.

"Hey I'm not the one wearing booty shorts here."

"THEY ARE NOT BOO-" Cal let out a loud groan. "Papyrus are these booty shorts?" The word hissed out from between her teeth, hating the way it sounded as she asked the owner of said shorts for backup on her case.

"Hmm? The 'cool' ones? No those are sleeping shorts!" He took a glance at Cal before returning his gaze to the stove top. "You can tell because she slept in them! So obviously they must be made for that purpose, otherwise they would have been uncomfortable dear brother!"

Sans grin widened. "Yeah, you're right about that I suppose bro." His eyes locked with Cal's as she gave a fake glare while closing the gap between her and the table, sitting down across from him. "Sleeping booty shorts."

"Oh my god they are not even that short just-"

"BREAKFAST IS SERVED!" Papyrus whipped around with plates filled with bacon and eggs, a slice of buttered toast on each plate. He walked over and placed a plate in front of Sans before putting one in front of Cal. "I was not sure how you'd like your eggs so I scrambled them just in case!" He placed the last plate on the side between the two of them and sat down to eat as well.

"Scrambled eggs are actually my favorite, thank you." Cal gave him a bright smile before turning her attention to the food. Wow it smelled fantastic. She dug her fork into the eggs and tried a bite. No wonder this guy was a chef! "Wow these are really great! Thank you so much." Her eyes widened a bit in surprise as she proceeded to dig in.

"I am a professional chef! Of course they are fantastic!" Papyrus twirled his fork in the air, raising it and his arm high before returning to eating.

"It's just a small diner Pap." Sans beamed at his brother. "But hey, every day you get better. Who knows, maybe you'll be working some place really fancy next." He gave genuine encouragement to his brother, getting happy, yet embarrassed, laughter in return.

Cal swallowed the food in her mouth, careful to not speak with her mouth full. "I hope so, I think you'd be really _egg_ celant." Sans gave a small laugh as Papyrus abruptly yelled in frustration at the pun.

"WHY MUST YOU TORMENT ME TOO?"

+

"Thanks so much for having me over and thank you so much for breakfast. I had a lot of fun but I've gotta head out, I told my mom I'd head out around noon if I could." Cal handed Papyrus back the clothes he had lent her for the night. "And thanks for the clothes, they were really comfortable to sleep in."

"Thank you so much for coming over Cal! I am so glad you had a good time! Perhaps we could hang out again some time! When would you be off of work next?" The tall skeleton gave her an expectant smile, awaiting her answer. 

Once again, Cal found that she couldn't say no to him. "Uhh well. I have this Thursday off." 

"OH FANTASTIC! I HAVE WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY OFF, MYSELF!" He clapped happily. "Would you like to go see a movie or do something about town? I know you do not live here so I could show you the local monster-run shops if you like!"

"That actually sounds pretty fun. Yeah just let me know when you'd like me to come over on Thursday and I can swing by. You've got my number now so feel free to text me I guess." Cal gave a small shrug. "I can't guarantee I'll always respond because you know, school and work." 

"I promise not to bother you too much! But I am glad that I'll be able to talk to you without you having to drive so far." An apologetic grin crossed his face before he continued, "I will be looking forward to Thursday! I know we will have lots of fun!"

Cal nodded as she gave him a small smile. "Well I guess I'll see you guys later on Thursday." She gave a small wave and opened the door, turning to see Papyrus waving happily and Sans still seated on the couch.

"HAVE A SAFE RIDE HOME FRIEND!" Cal shut the door with another wave before heading down the sidewalk. She took a right to the driveway, her car parked there with Papyrus' in the garage. She was thankful to not have to park in the street. 

Before she was able to open her driver's side door her phone chimed from her pocket. She pulled it out, wondering if her mom had gotten impatient. As she tapped open the text a laugh escaped her. 

_"Hope U come back over soon! I had a lot of fun and Sans did 2! He just wont say so LOL"_

He hadn't even waited five minutes.

+

Despite the first initial text Papyrus hadn't really texted her often, just every now and then telling Cal something silly that had happened or asking what she was up to. It was pleasant, messaging someone about mundane things. It helped pass the time until Thursday, which she was genuinely looking forward to. The city she lived in was big enough that not a lot of monsters had moved in, only a couple going to the same college as her or visiting her workplace. There were no locally owned shops run by monsters so she was curious to find out if they were like normal shops or if there were more in the odd. Maybe it was rude of her to assume their stores would be something mysterious and out of the ordinary but she hoped she was only ignorant and not being hurtful by thinking so. Unless they really were like that.

She thought about it as she shoved a bacon sandwich into her face on Thursday morning. She had already received about fifteen texts from Papyrus, eagerly asking when she was ready to leave on her way to his home. He sure did text more when he was excited, didn't he? It was nice in a way. 

Pocketing her wallet and phone Cal grabbed her car keys and headed on out. Her phone went off again and she sighed. He knew she was on her way so he'd just have to hang on for the next hour.

She arrived roughly an hour later and with roughly fifteen new texts. She pulled her car into the driveway and waved at the waiting skeleton who regarded her warmly. After standing in the yard talking for a bit they both went got into the red car that had been moved into the street side for easier access.

The two really did spend the day wandering around town, visiting a bookstore, an antique shop, a music store, and nearly a small cafe until Cal had seen the spider behind the counter and explained to Papyrus that she could just not go inside by any means she hates to be rude but can we please go somewhere else holy shit. With an apology Papyrus took her someplace else, a small human run cafe to get a couple of sandwiches before heading to see a movie. Cal talked about school and work in between Papyrus telling her about living underground and training for the royal guard. He explained all about how Frisk had helped them all escape from Mt.Ebott, though he told it as him not capturing the small child was the most integral part. They shared stories about their siblings and various mishaps while growing up until they rushed off to the movies. 

They wrapped up the evening by stopping by a small ice cream place that Papyrus had saved for last. "Nice cream? That's so cute!" Cal laughed a little bit as she reached the counter, choosing out a maple based flavor combination to be placed in a small bowl with a small pink spoon placed in to the side. After Papyrus had gotten his double scoop cone they sat down at a small booth by the window. They happily ate their treats as a few moments of silence passed between them.

"Um, human I am sorry to ask but-" The girl flicked her blue eyes up from her nice cream to the skeleton before her. Who seemed to be a very bright shade of red. "Could this perhaps be a date?"

If Cal had been drinking something she would have done a spit-take. She accidentally let out a rather sharp laugh in surprise. "Oh my god. Oh my god sorry I'm not meaning to be rude just, wow. WOW. This really all does kinda feel like a date, huh?" A little more laughter escaped her. "Maybe it's like, a friend date? Different then a date-date. Or something."

The confused look that was on the poor blushing skeleton's face soon turned into a beaming grin. "I HAD NOT THOUGHT OF THAT! You're so smart Cal! Perhaps I should see if you could help with a couple puzzles..." He looked off contemplatively before turning his attention back to her. "Now that I know about 'friend dates' I should go on them more often! They are a lot of fun!" His face softened to a kind grin. "I'm very glad it is a 'friend date.' I was afraid my idea of hanging out had gotten you swept into an unending passionate romance! It would have been a shame if something were to cause turmoil to arise in our new best-friendship."

Cal laughed once more, "Nahh you're alright Pap. I'm just fine being friends. I think I'm pretty fond of us just hanging out." She took another bite of her nice cream. "Or having friend dates, this has been a lot of fun. It's been a while since I just hung out with someone like this."

"I'm so glad you have been having a good time. I too have been having a lot of fun! Perhaps next time we could- OH! HELLO SANS!"

Cal looked up at the skeleton in front of her to see him waving at the window beside them. She quickly turned her head to the side to see the skeleton who couldn't accompany them today standing right outside the window gazing at them. She choked a bit in surprise as he gave a wave back before walking to the door to come inside. 

"SANS SO NICE THAT YOU COULD JOIN US!"

"Yeah glad I could _snow_ up." He sat down in the booth beside his brother in a very casual manner as if he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. Though perhaps to him it was just standard fare.

"How nice _cream_ of you to join us." Cal coughed a bit more as she gave him a mild glare. "I thought Papyrus said you were working all day today."

"Got off early."

"It's a shame you did not get off of work sooner, we were going to be done after eating these treats!" Papyrus spoke sadly. "We have gone to all the local monster run shops today, I thought this one would be the best to end on."

Sans' grin widened. "So you took her to Grillbz new place?"

"I WOULD NEVER! HOW DARE YOU ASSUME I WOULD TAKE HER TO THAT GREASE TRAP?" Papyrus donned one of his typical comical expressions in frustration.

"What's that? A fast food place?" Cal gave a confused face as she continued eating, unsure of what else a 'grease trap' could be.

"Nah it's a bar run by a friend. It's got some pretty good food but Pap here isn't a fan."

"Oh dang, bar food is pretty great, but yeah I guess it can get pretty greasy." Cal smiled at the idea. Maybe they'd have chili cheese fries? "You sure you don't want to go?" She addressed Papyrus, attempting to look as sweet as possible as she asked. Not intentionally trying to pressure her new friend in to anything but man was she excited for the prospect of bar food.

The skeleton's expression twisted, obviously trying to keep himself from just blurting out a no. As he began to look more conflicted Cal opened her mouth to say it was alright if he didn't want to go only to be cut off by the new third member of the group. "Well she could just go with me. You guys have been hanging out all day after all."

Cal's expression fell a bit with worry as Papyrus' turned ecstatic. "WHAT A GREAT IDEA! You two can go to that grease pit and have your own 'friend date'!" He nodded to himself as he continued, "Yes I can drop you both off since Cal's car is back at the house. Just call me when you both are done eating disgusting food! I will be at home eating leftovers from yesterday's masterpiece of a dinner!"

"Well it looks like it's just gonna be you and me then sweetheart." Sans chuckled a bit and tightened his grin before looking away awkwardly, "Having a uh, 'friend date'? Sorry to leave you out Pap but it's one of the best monster owned businesses. Thought she'd like to _sweet_ Grillbz."

"YOU CAN BOTH HAVE FUN WITH YOUR HORRIBLE JOKES BY YOURSELVES PLEASE!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adding two chapters in one day because I have no self control.


	6. Grillby's

"YOU TWO HAVE FUN! JUST CALL WHEN YOU'RE DONE EATING SLOP!" The red car drove away, leaving Cal and Sans standing alone in front of the entrance to a rather plain looking bar. It had a couple tinted windows and a sign on the outside but was otherwise very uneyecatching. Cal turned her head to her companion to ask about the bar only to see him already heading to the door. She scurried after him, grabbing the door before it closed as she followed him inside.

It was very plain on the inside as well, simple wooden chairs pushed up to wooden tables or occupied by various monsters. There seemed to be an entire party of dog monsters off in the corner as a matter of fact. There were a couple small booths along one of the walls as well as some bar stools in front of the actual bar. The whole place had low lighting, save for a bright light coming from the bar, seeming to be emitting from a man made entirely of fire who was dressed to the nines. Cal's mouth dropped open in surprise as she stared at him in awe that such a man could exist. "Hey there Grillbz." Sans waved at the man casually, receiving a similarly casual nod back. So this was the owner of the whole place? Nearly all the monsters in the bar called out a hello to Sans, addressing him by name as they did so. He chuckled and knocked his elbow lightly against Cal. "I know Grillbz is pretty _hot_ but it's rude to stare. C'mon, I'll get a booth."

Cal stammered a bit, embarrassed by the insinuation he had made. Though she was also embarrassed to simply be caught staring at someone. She gave a huff as she had no choice but to quickly follow the skeleton as he was once again not waiting for her. He sat down on one side of a rather comfortable looking booth as she took the other side. His head was quickly placed in his hand, looking off into the rest of the bar with a bored expression.

"You didn't have to bring me here if you didn't want to." Cal huffed, simply annoyed by the skeleton's actions. He was being incredibly difficult in comparison to the other monsters who had recently come into her life and she'd prefer if he'd just simply state that he didn't want to be friends instead of trying to pretend for his brother.

"No I wanted to bring you here." His gaze snapped to her, making her jump a bit. The tiny illuminated dots inside his skull widened a bit, almost like a cat's pupils. "Pap really had fun today huh? I'm glad you guys are getting along. He deserves more friends."

One of Cal's eyebrows raised. He was still acting hostile towards her despite his words being kind. She didn't enjoy how difficult he was to read most of the time, but assumed it was because she simply was unaccustomed to being around him, making his actions foreign to her. "I'm glad he had fun, I had a great time too. It's been a while since I've hung out with anyone."

"Don't you have human friends?" It was asked just as casually as every other sentence of his but she could still catch the sharp undertone to his words.

"Not really. I used to only really hang out with my older brother. I've had some friends in school growing up and I have work friends but we don't really talk outside of uh, school or work." Cal fidgeted, a hand running through her long brown hair as she spoke. Her eyes were cast to the side, a bit ashamed at admitting that she didn't really have friends outside of family. She nervously looked back at Sans, half expecting him to laugh at her, only to see his demeanor had softened considerably. 

"Heh, yeah it used to only be Pap and me for a looong time." He closed his eye sockets, his smile gentle. "I mean yeah, we had ol' Grillbz here lookin out for us but we didn't really stray from one another growing up."

Cal found herself mimicking his nostalgic grin. "Yeah I feel that. My mom was really busy growing up so it was usually just my brother and I at home, he practically raised me. Saying that it sounds like he should have been more of a parent figure but nah he was a best friend."

"I heard you saying he lives five hours away now?" 

Oh, he had been listening to that? "Yeah, just this year too. It's been hard." She took a deep breath. "But, it's been good for his career and well... I guess it's been good for Mom too in a way." Her face completely fell, staring at the table sadly.

"Thought you'd want the usual!" A chipper voice came from the side, a monster in an outfit similar to the flaming man's standing there with a tray of food. They placed down two sets of burgers and fries along with a classically shaped bottle of ketchup. "Let me know if you need anything else!" They waved and trotted off, stopping at the booth behind them to take their order down.

"Oh wow this looks really great." Cal gaped at the food for a moment. "Guess you come here a lot though if you have a usual."

He shrugged as he took the cap off of the ketchup bottle. "Yeah nearly every day I guess. Guess Grillbz just _lights up_ my life."

A giggle left Cal, "Guess the food must be pretty great." Maybe eating so many burgers was why he was so big despite being a skeleton? Though that was rude to assume since Cal had a habit of eating nothing but junk food and yet she was only mildly chubby. She thanked any and all deities for getting her dad's metabolism. 

As she went to take one of her fries she found the bottle of ketchup being handed out to her, tapping at her fingers before she could reach her food. "Need any?" Cal gave a small thanks as she took the bottle, tapping it out over the corner of her fries only to have nearly half of the bottle's contents spill out on top of (appropriately) nearly half her fries. Sans gave a loud chuckle at her expression before pretending to wipe and eye and slide his non condiment contaminated fries towards her. "I couldn't help myself, here you can have mine."

She pushed his fries back to his side of the table. "Nah, they were gonna get ketchup on them anyways. Plus I always eat my fries first." She gave him a playful wink and popped a fry in her mouth. He gave her a quizzical look before letting out a light laugh, admitting defeat as he took his fries back along with the ketchup bottle, pouring the rest of the contents on top of his own fries. "You know, they're pretty good like this." Cal laughed before she kept eating. She could see why he stopped by here all the time, if the fries were this crisp, flavorful, and fresh then the burger had to be fantastic. 

They ate for a moment in silence, simply enjoying the food before Sans awkwardly cleared his throat. "So uh, your brother being gone is good for your mom?" He spoke slowly, as if he wasn't sure about asking. His expression a mix of curiosity and worry as he kept his eyes off of her.

"Uh. Y-yeah." Cal didn't realize she'd be questioned about this topic. "He uh, looks pretty similar to our dad. At least um. That's what Mom says sometimes."

"Oh? Is your dad off somewhere else?" His voice was quiet, as if he knew what he was saying was wrong.

"No. He's dead." Sans looked up at her, looking a bit taken aback at how blunt she was about it. She gave a bit of a sigh, "It happened when I was seven. I don't have a lot of memories of him. Honestly I remember him teaching me how to sign more then anything else, and you've seen how good I am at that when I talk to Frisk." She laughed bitterly. "Mom's usually fine but as Eric got older she just... Would get really upset sometimes. She'd come in the room and just see him and have to leave-" Her voice caught in her throat. Cal took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to keep back tears. "It was just painful for her."

"Wow uh..." She opened her eyes and rested her gaze on Sans, expecting him to feel awkward from her just unloading that all on him. Cal always tried to be as honest as possible, but it sometimes led to her saying the wrong thing or saying too much. Instead of looking how she expected he seemed apologetic, his eyes sad. "Sorry I asked about it."

"Nah, sorry I went on about it." She forced a laugh to assure him that she was fine. "I still get calls from my brother every week so it's not as bad as I make it out to be. Just... Different." She went back to eating the rest of her fries, trying to eat them before they cooled.

"You said his name was Eric right?" Cal nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything. "If his name's so normal why is yours Cal? Kinda weird huh?" Sans chuckled a bit, attempting to tease her.

"Well it's a nickname." She wiped off her hand with a napkin before preparing to pick up the burger she was eagerly waiting for.

"What's your full name then, sweetheart?" A displeased expression crossed her face as he addressed her. The way he asked made it sound like this was some weird blind date.

"It's not important."

"What?" He had not been expecting that, had he?

"It's just a name, and one I don't even use. Except for legal purposes I guess. So it's really honestly not important. I'm not trying to hide it I just, don't really care about it I guess?" She was only partially lying, the nickname started as her trying to hide her name out of embarrassment. Now she just felt very distant from the family name she had gotten from her grandmother. Though to be fair her grandmother had gotten it from her grandmother and her from her grandmother and so on. It was old and weird.

"Ohhh so you're just embarrassed." Sans chuckled and pushed his plate a bit to the side, having finished his food. Wait, when did eat? Cal couldn't recall seeing him touch any of it now that she thought about it. " _Cal_ cium? _Cal_ culator? _Cal_ ibrator? Stop me if I get close."

"Holy shit shut up those aren't even names." She laughed and reached across the table to shove his arm lightly. "You afraid of someone else being 'mysterious' or something?" 

"Wow you think I'm mysterious?" He pretended to act flattered. "Now all I need is to be tall, dark, and handsome."

Cal covered her mouth as she attempted to not laugh with her mouth full. "Well you're a little bit taller then me if that counts for anything. Not quite sure how a skeleton would get dark though." She tapped her chin in pretend thought.

The two of them shared a laugh and continued joking and talking for another hour or so. The two of them had relaxed in relation to the other, though Cal definitely noticed that Sans was still relatively rigid. Still, she appreciated the fact that he was at least trying to befriend her. Or something. She wasn't sure if it was for his brother's sake or if he was genuinely apologetic about being rude to her earlier that week. Either way she felt like both of them were having a good time.

At least until Cal got a very worried phone call from Papyrus from how late it was getting.


	7. A Surprise at Work

The next few weeks proceeded similarly to the previous few. Cal still went to school and had work every few days but the in-between was punctuated with her spending time with the new group of monsters she had come to know as friends. At first it was just her spending time with Papyrus and Sans, the taller skeleton even accompanying them to the bar a few times. After a couple more lessons at Toriel's house the three of them were joined by Undyne and Alphys- or rather the trio went with the girlfriends to their house to watch anime and various movies. As Cal realized the skeleton brothers weren't nearly as in to the shows as she was she exchanged numbers with Alphys so she could just visit on her own. A couple weeb nights later and the three of them had made it through about half of the new lineup for the season.

The magic lessons at Toriel's home had mostly evolved into lessons about monster history and monster biology. For the end of every lesson each human would try to do something with their magic, Airi helping Toriel heat up food or make a small fire, Taylor trying to connect with her magic to be less spontaneous, and Cal mostly sitting around helping the others since she had a relatively good grasp on using her magic. The shield was simple and was only really used to block various things that Undyne would throw at her every now and then. After Cal started getting used to things flying through the air towards her the fish woman asked permission to try and punch at the girl. Hesitantly she agreed to indulge her but now found that even more horrifying then the flying objects.

Cal had met a couple of the other humans who had agreed to meet with Toriel, they were coming on the opposite weekends as her and the other two girls but due to Cal spending so much time with the other monsters she had the pleasure of meeting them. A quiet teenage boy, a friendly middle aged woman, and a chipper little girl. They talked a bit as Cal sat in for one of their lessons, Papyrus promising to help the kind goat woman out while the others were busy that weekend.

Using all that gas to drive back and forth had been a bit killer on Cal but the others were understanding that she couldn't come over nearly as often as they invited her. She had been debating on having them come to visit her but she was a bit wary about having everyone around her mom with how weak she was feeling lately. She had yet to invite anyone over to her house, or even to visit her at work. It was just a small bookstore with a cafe at the back so she wasn't sure if any of them would be really interested. Alphys maybe, but Undyne and Papyrus would be too rowdy and loud to be able to stay inside the building for more then a few minutes, especially if they introduced themselves as guests of hers.

She resolved herself to another average day at work as the building was sure to fill with another study group or numerous middle aged mothers stopping by after work. At least that was until she turned at the chime of someone walking through the door to come face to face with Sans. 

"Hello! Welcome to- uuhh hey?" Cal's words came out as a small squeak. What in the hell was he doing here?! And where was his trademark hoodie? His eyes shifted to the side awkwardly as beads of sweat began to form on his brow.

"Hey there. Didn't know you worked here." He reached up his arm to scratch the back of his head. "I've got um, some new books to drop off."

She blinked a few times before it sank in. "Oh, oh! Is this one of your part time jobs?" He gave a small laugh with a yes before she continued. "There's usually a different guy who comes in I guess maybe he's sick or something then. Uh yeah I should have realized when you're holding a freaking clip board huh?"

He laughed nervously, "Yeah uh, just sign and I can bring the boxes inside. Then I'll uh, _book_ it on out of here." He held the clip board out out sheepishly. Cal took it from him and signed her name on the line as she was used to. "Alright let me go get those then I guess."

"So you work at the delivery place?" Cal followed him out to the van despite Sans very visibly withdrawing from her. 

"I usually just pack things, but they needed help with this today." He went to grab one of the boxes before Cal went to pick it up, him pulling his hands away quickly. He lifted another one instead. "I don't usually like doing heavy lifting. Luckily it's just these two for here." 

"Fair enough. I hope you don't have too much more to do today." She got the door, letting him inside as he followed her in to the back. "I remember you said you have multiple part time jobs?" She sat the box down on top of the one he had just placed on the ground. "Where all do you work?" As she turned her attention to Sans she saw him rubbing his closed eye sockets in a manner similar to frustration.

"I don't- I don't really want to talk about it right now okay?"

Cal had learned that he was rather reclusive about what he did with his time and regretted questioning him so heavily. "Sorry... I didn't mean to bother you about it." She placed a hand on his shoulder apologetically.

He flinched a tiny bit but nodded. "Nah you're fine. Just, wow didn't expect to see you today." A laugh escaped him as he attempted to stop appearing so tense. He worked a lot so one of his jobs suddenly changing up on him had to be stressful. Now that Cal was right next to him she could see how tired he looked. 

"Hey, let's get you a cup of coffee huh?" She rubbed the top of his back briefly, stopping as she felt him tense up. 

"It's alright, you don't needta do that sweetheart. I've got a _skele_ ton of work to do today so I need to get going." He let out a weak laugh and started heading to the door.

"No no it'll be really quick. I'll pay for it even." Cal strode past him and held open the door for him before ushering him over to the coffee bar. "You'll probably feel a bit better with it anyways." 

He stood there staring at her as he was taken back for a moment. "Trying to win me over with caffeine huh? Guess I'll just take a small black then if you're so insistent."

"Nahhh, just thought it might make your day a little bit better." She went about getting his coffee together. "Never pegged you for drinking black coffee though."

"Just need something strong to get through the rest of today." He sat at the counter and closed his eyes as he relaxed for a moment. He opened them slowly as he heard his coffee being set down in front of him.

"If you need something strong shouldn't I put milk in it then to strengthen your bones?" Cal got a small laugh from Sans as he took his coffee in his hands. "Fortify them with _Cal_ cium." She giggled for a moment before realizing she was the only one laughing. Her attention turned to the skeleton before her who was smiling nervously as he was tinted a light shade of blue. Holy shit not only could these skeletons blush but they he seemed to blush blue of all colors. Wait. Why was he blushing? The cogs in Cal's brain clicked quickly until she realized her joke could have possibly been taken as flirting. A light blush crept on to her face as well before she pointed at him dramatically, counter cleaning towel flying from her hand, "BECAUSE I WOULD BE THE ONE PUTTING THE MILK IN THE COFFEE."

Sans laughed relatively loud as he put his hand over his face. "Holy shit sweetheart I get you, calm down. Plus I already made that joke." His laughter quieted as he took a couple breaths, "Boy I guess spending all that time with Pap is really rubbing off on you. Getting his poses down pretty good."

She shuffled embarrassedly and ran a hand through her hair. "Bet I didn't look anywhere near as cool as him though, huh?"

"I found it pretty _humerus_."

"Oh shut up." Cal laughed. "Hand me my towel so I can throw it at you this time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter so I'm went along and posted it with the previous one to make up for it.


	8. Halloween Party

_"don't worry I'm getting dressed and then I'm heading on over lol it's like an hour and a half till everyone else is showing up right?"_

_"omg lol yea just making sure you remembered <33"_

_"duh of course I remembered who would miss out on your halloween party?? isn't it going to be like the sickest shit or was that just undyne getting EXCITED lol"_

_"maybe kiiinDA somethin like that lmao"_

_"lol whatever it'll be good either way. lemme get ready and then I'll be on my way over"_

_"remember to bring season two with youuuu~"_

Cal laughed to herself and chucked her phone on to her bed. She already had her skeleton print tights on and was shoving a skeleton print dress on herself. She put on the finishing touches to her incredibly cheap Halloween 'costume', a mid calf high pair of red boots and a red scarf. Cheap and a playful nod to a friend. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a cool skeleton for Halloween?

She grabbed a bag she had packed earlier, filled with clothes and a few DVD sets. Along with the party that everyone had been invited to Cal was asked if she'd like to stay through the night watching horror movies and scary anime and eating candy. She had been looking forward to the event since Undyne mentioned planning for it about three weeks ago. 

With spirits high and excitement brimming within her Cal wished her mom goodbye and headed out to her car to begin the hour long drive.

+

Cal immediately moved to the side after knocking on the door, already anticipating Undyne dramatically kicking it out, which she did indeed do. "GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE NERD THIS PARTY IS STARTING!!" Undyne positively threw herself at the short girl, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her inside the couple's house. "It's already pretty awesome huh?"

"Y-yeah. Wow there's a lot of people here I've never met, huh?" Cal looked around the living room, her eyes never quite finding time to settle on one monster. There were plenty she had never even seen before along with a few from the bar who she was at least acquainted with. After Undyne had finished pulling Cal through the costumed party-goes to the dining room, which was a lot less crowded, the two of them finally inspected each others costumes. "Pirate! Cool and appropriate." Cal laughed a little bit at just how elaborate the fish woman's outfit was.

"Man you look like some cheap knock-off skeleton!" Undyne bellowed loudly before punctuating it with a hearty laugh, probably intentionally hamming it up due to her costume. As she gave her plastic cutlass a swing Cal was sure it was due to her costume. 

"C'mon my costume is not that bad. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a cool skeleton for Halloween?" Alright she sounded like a dork.

"WHO IS THIS OTHER SKELETON?" The very familiar loud voice rose over the music as Papyrus appeared from the crowd, clad in a knight costume. "OH! IT IS OUR HUMAN FRIEND CAL!" He approached her and gave her a look over before furrowing his brow, seeming unsure of his next words. "I do not think.. It's a very accurate costume."

Cal made a pretend angry expression and gave him a light shove. "Hey! I only have so much to work with you know! Thought I'd spare you guys the store's 'sexy skeleton' getup."

"Well you're not wearing pants so you're at least moderately indecent." The low tired voice came from beside her, barely audible over the music. Cal didn't even have to turn to know who it was. 

"I made due with what I could find! Even if my Papyrus costume isn't nearly as great as the original." She gave a quick playful wink to the tall skeleton in front of her who had a small blush rise across his cheeks before giving a quick wave in an 'oh you' fashion. "That's a really cool knight outfit though."

He posed heroically and placed a hand on the empty sword sheath at his hip. "Of course! The GREAT KNIGHT Papyrus wouldn't settle for any less!"

"It looks great on you." Cal gave him a thumbs up before finally turning her attention to Sans. Knowing him he spent most of his time preparing for Halloween finding that costume for his brother so she was wondering what kind of last minute thing he would be clad in. She was not disappointed as her gaze rested on him, looking completely ordinary save for a cat ear headband taped to his skull. "What the hell."

"I'm S _nya_ ns."

"You shut the fuck up." 

"THAT'S WHAT I TOLD HIM!" An uncharacteristically loud voice piped up and came closer, Alphys getting in a mild huff. "It is absolutely ridiculous and he doesn't even have a tail or anything else I know you are doing this on purpose." The sailor uniform clad reptile pointed a finger at the skeleton in fake anger as Cal's hand flew to her mouth, attempting to stifle the laughter she had building within her since she had laid eyes on Sans.

"What am I doing?" He paused for moment to glance at Cal, the bottoms of his eye sockets turning up a bit as his grin widened, before his eyes shot back to Alphys. "..nya."

"DON'T YOU DARE START THAT AGAIN!" Alphys couldn't help but smile at how ridiculous the situation was. "You are doing this JUST because I made you watch that fanime I found!"

Large beads of sweat rose up on Sans' forehead as he looked away from Alphys, now visibly uncomfortable. "Uh, yeah about that. Tori said we should only show Frisk uh, 'age appropriate' anime from now on. They're uh, starting to try to draw anime."

A look of realization crossed the small reptile's face. "Th-they're putting huge boobs on everything aren't they?" A few moments of silence passed as none of the three of them spoke.

"Ok so we stick to Sailor Moon and Cardcaptors and shit like that." Cal nodded to herself before the other two nodded in agreement. 

"OR WE COULD JUST WATCH SOMETHING THAT'S ACTUALLY GOOD!!" Undyne called from across the room before giving a triumphant yell. Cal was never sure how she could pick up on what was going on despite being no where near the conversation. Maybe they were just predictable.

"We're still having magic lesson stuff tomorrow right? I know Toriel's going to take pictures of Frisk in their costume and I really can't wait to see how cute they look tonight when we're over tomorrow." Cal turned back to Alphys. The two were out trick or treating so they wouldn't be stopping by the party, though it was seeming like it was too rowdy for a small child anyways.

"Oh! She actually has Airi and h-her parents along with them so we'll be able to see her costume too!" Alphys did a small happy jump before leaning in to talk to Cal quieter. "Plus there's no way everyone here is going to eat all the c-candy Undyne got so I was going to give them some of what's left so neither of us get s-sick eating all of it." She stuck her tongue out and closed her eyes, making a silly sick face before changing it to a very serious expression. "Because we would eat all of it. For sure."

Cal giggled and nodded. "Man you don't have to convince me, I'd do the same thing. I've got too many sweet teeth."

"Wanna trade some out for some _funny bones_?" Sans forced himself back in to the conversation that he had been excluded out of by Alphys. He stood there with a good ten or so bones just in his arms casually.

"Oh my god put those away Pap will get excited to show off his special move if he sees." Cal laughed and gave the bones a light shove. "I don't think this place could handle that right now." He shrugged and raised his arms, all of the bones fading out in a light blue light before they hit the floor. 

"Hey guys magic practice is _tomorrow_ remember?" An arm draped around Cal's shoulders, causing her to jump before seeing it was Taylor leaning against her. "Now is the time to par-tay." She threw both of her hands up to the ceiling and started dancing around excitedly. "Gotta KICK IT IN TO GEAR!"

"Holy shit Taylor the dancing is in the living room this is where the snacks are."

The girl paused mid dance move and stared at Cal. "The party is where you make it babe."

"Is that why you're wearing a sequin dress? Gotta make every room a party?" Cal grinned as the girl nodded excitedly. "It matches your hair nicely by the way."

"Yeah I was going for the glittery purple blob look. It's very in right now." Taylor did a dramatic pose a' la Papyrus. "Digging your Papaya costume. I bet he thought it was pretty cool, but damn he's looking pretty sweet in his knight costume. Where'd you guys find that?" She turned to address Sans, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He once again grew a bit sweaty, the lights in his eyes growing smaller as he was visually uncomfortable with the contact. Taylor kept her hand on him regardless, expectant grin widening. "We uh, actually got it at uh, one of those medieval fairs they have a couple towns over."

"OH WELL NO WONDER! That must have cost a ton, lucky Papyrus." She laughed and let go of his shoulder, Cal noticing him visibly relax as she did. She gave him a small apologetic smile for the outgoing girl as his gaze met hers. He paused for a moment before his expression turned a bit distant, shifting away from Cal physically as he turned away from her. 

Cal opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong before realizing that Taylor hadn't spoken or moved for a good thirty seconds. "Hey Tay what's up?" She turned instead to the girl beside her only to see her looking completely taken aback in awe.

"Who is that do you see that guy over there?" She pointed by the front door to a figure standing away from the dancers, occasionally nodding at people who greeted them. 

Cal recognized them instantly. "Oh that's Grillby, he runs that bar Sans and I go to some times." She paused before looking back at Taylor. "What about him?"

_"He's hot."_

"Yes he is literally made out of fire."

"Ohmygod no you know what I mean like WOW damn hi hello there sir." Taylor chuckled and straightened her dress a bit before running her fingers through her hair. "How do I look?"

"You are seriously going to go over there and flirt with him." Cal tried not to laugh at just how honest and forward the girl beside her could be. "I've never even heard him talk before so he might not reciprocate you know."

"It's cool Cal my dress is inflammable. I've got this." She took a deep breath and strode in to the living room, dodging various people as she kept moving to reach her goal.

Cal watched her get about five feet away before calling out, "INFLAMMABLE IS THE SAME AS FLAMMABLE JUST SO YOU KNOW." A small laugh to herself and she turned her attention back to the two who had yet to venture in to the living room, same as her.

Alphys laughed nervously. "She's really n-nice but.. Too fast paced for me to talk to. Makes me kinda sad." She gave a small sigh. "You'd think Undyne would h-have me ready for it. But nope."

"You're totally fine. They're pretty different, to be fair." Cal gave her a small pat on the shoulder. "Undyne is loud and passionate but listens well and, wow Taylor is just go go go. I'm surprised I can get as many words in as I can."

"To be fair he is pretty _hot_."

"Oh my god Sans no."

"Puts a _fire_ in my soul."

"Feeling yourself _heat up_ when you see him?"

"It's un _flambe_ rable."

"That one was reaching."

"Ok you got me there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I got really caught up with work and finals so here's two chapters to apologize for the wait!


	9. The Bramble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This note is at the beginning because this is kind of where things start to get real. A new element is introduced and I have a feeling it might not be so well received. Regardless I hope you enjoy as we learn some new things about Cal.

An unfamiliar song woke Cal from her sleep. She blinked and looked around the room, seeing the moderately familiar surroundings of Alphys and Undyne's home. Alphys must have changed her alarm tone. Cal vaguely remembered it being set for the mid afternoon since they had managed to stay up a good while through the night watching movies after all the other guests had gone home. 

The party had been fun, lots of chatting and eating snacks on Cal's end. Undyne had tried to get her and Sans out in the living room on more then one occasion, once even attempting to have them dance together. Though that was quickly thrown out as an option as the skeleton had teleported as soon as the fish had smashed them together. He was quickly replaced with his brother and well Cal couldn't say no to how happy he was with the idea of dancing. He was relatively well coordinated and it had been fun, at least until he stepped on her foot and she was put in a chair to retire to the dining room for the evening. Sans had been back in there by himself and seemed to have acquired some fast food so Cal didn't mind one bit.

After everyone had trickled down to just the main group of friends that Cal was familiar with they watched a short Halloween special on TV before the skeletons headed out as well. The rest of the night had been filled with more fast food, a couple slasher movies, and one of Undyne's favorite shounen animes to end on and ultimately fall asleep to. Cal was sure she could still hear the quiet menu theme for the DVD playing even now. 

She could hear Undyne talking to Alphys in the kitchen, probably making breakfast for everyone since she always woke up early no matter what time she went to bed, something that Alphys had expressed embarrassment over multiple times from pulling all nighters only to find her girlfriend had been up for hours. 

Cal drew in a deep breath as she went to stretch, only to have her breath hitch short, a deep pain resonating from inside her chest. No please not today. Cal had experienced a few bad days since starting learning about magic but they had never fallen on the days she was supposed to learn. Today was supposed to be special as well, learning about the renovations that were going on in the underground sorting out a time to visit the remodeled area when everyone would be free tomorrow. She had heard about humans moving in underground and the opening up of the area so monsters who wanted to stay in their homes could continue to live there but she had yet to see anything official. She wanted to see where her friends once lived. She couldn't be having a bad day today, she'd have to push through.

Cal rose up slowly, the pain thrumming inside of her with each breath and movement. It was a bad one. She stood slowly and braced herself against the wall. Honestly she should probably just call it a day and ask to continue sleeping on their floor, but it would be difficult and uncomfortable to explain. A forced deep inhale and she walked in to the kitchen, attempting to ignore the pain coming with every movement.

"Hey guys what's up?"

+

The drive to Toriel's felt a lot longer then the five minute drive that it really was. Cal had explained that she wasn't feeling very good but hadn't elaborated much. Leaving the others to occasionally toss her a concerned glance as she sat with her knees against her chest in the back seat, head resting on her legs. Alphys placed a hand on Cal's elbow gently, letting her know that they were at their destination. Cal smiled and played it off like she was just a little tired, sorry don't worry about it. 

They entered the small home and said hello to everyone but Cal barely registered everything. Toriel and Airi's parents showed pictures of the children trick or treating and Cal smiled and told the two that they had looked really great, yet her eyes found it hard to focus. If asked she probably would not even be able to recall what the children had been dressed as. She sat firmly on the couch trying to ignore the low pain pulsing through her body and focus on Toriel's words as she began to talk about how the underground used to be and how the humans and monsters were renovating to bring light in to the space and expand the living area for monsters who didn't want to leave home or for humans who found comfort with monsters. 

Despite trying to focus Cal kept looking around at the others in the room with her, subconsciously trying to make sure they weren't noticing anything wrong with her. Everyone seemed to be focused on the large woman's words, discussing with her the pros and cons of the situation and where all they'd be able to see on their visit. Whenever others laughed Cal attempted to give a small laugh as well, despite her attention being so divided. 

Things had began to quiet down a bit and Cal felt the ache rise. She decided to just excuse herself to the bathroom to attempt to calm down, maybe splash some water on her face or something. Maybe curl up on the rug and take a nap, Sans had been caught doing that once so it wouldn't be so strange. She stood slowly and pointed down the hall, attempting to say the word bathroom before she realized none of the sounds she had made formed any kind of coherent words. The room around her grew fuzzy as her vision swam, catching a few looks of concern aimed at her as she felt her knees buckle.

The feeling of Alphys' nails against Cal's arm as she attempted to steady the girl and Sans abruptly shouting her name were the last things she took in before everything went black and she hit the floor.

+

The soft electronic sound of a machine whirring reached Cal's ears before she began to open her eyes. Please don't be in a hospital, they won't find anything wrong since it's nothing they can fix. Instead of being met with the white hospital ceiling she had often seen when she had been growing up in school it was a dusty blue. The girl turned her head to the left, looking around the dim room to try to figure out where she was. An eggplant colored gown with a crest across the front hung from the front door of a closet, only confusing the girl more until finally her eyes focused enough to see a picture of Frisk on the wall. Was this Toriel's room?

Cal turned her head to the other side only to see Alphys pressing buttons on a small machine she had set up in a chair, mumbling to herself. "No no.. this doesn't make any sense though.."

"Hey Alphys." 

The reptile woman jumped visibly before turning around in a hurry. "Cal! You're alright!" She spoke in a hushed tone despite how excited she seemed to be. Maybe she was worried about hurting Cal's ears more then alerting the others. "Everyone was so worried, you just passed out and I mean yeah that happens sometimes we just thought you were dehydrated or something so we tried to wake you up but you just weren't waking up not even when Undyne shook you so we brought you in here and... and.." She stopped waving her hands about as she spoke, bringing them down to fidget in front of her. A nervous habit. "You were out for a good four hours Cal."

Cal gave out a loud groan and covered her eyes with her arm. She still felt the pain within her but it had settled for becoming a dull ache instead of a stinging pain. Why couldn't it have just been this way to begin with? "Fuck I'm really sorry I shouldn't have gotten up when I did."

"Cal, this isn't normal for humans. Are you sick?" Despite herself a bitter laugh rose from the girl as she shook her head no. "Then.. what's wrong? I've used this machine when Frisk has gotten s-sick before to see how they're doing but.. it says you're just fine. But you're not fine.. a-are you?"

With a loud sigh Cal sat up, the monster beside her reaching out to attempt to steady her. "I should have come clean to begin with but I'm in too deep now." She shook her head sadly before looking over at Alphys, a look of confusion and worry written across her face. "I'll tell you everything. Just.. let me tell the others in my own time. Please." Cal stared down Alphys until she gave a firm nod. "I can't just make a shield."

Alphys gave a small ahah to herself. "I knew you had to have s-something else! A shield is just too simple. Airi has such a wide range of possibilities as do quite a few of the others, and even Taylor has been g-getting a handle on reading the past of people and objects as well as a display of their future probabilities! There'd have to be something else to your m-magical abiliti-"

"Alphys." She silenced her rambling apologetically. "This magic wasn't a blessing. It was a curse."

"A curse? That doesn't add up.. Is it just magic that can hurt others? That's not a curse since there's ways for it to be-"

"If I use the magic it hurts me."

A deep silence passed between them. "It... H-hurts you? How?"

"There's a bramble around my heart.. Or rather, my soul. I feel it constantly, reminding me to never use my other magic. Sometimes it tightens, like today." Cal gripped the front of her shirt as she paused. "It's killing me. And if I use my other magic it only kills me faster."

Another silence passed before Alphys brought her hand in front of Cal cautiously. "M-may I?" Her words were soft and a bit timid. Cal gave a small nod and moved her hands away, allowing the reptile woman to very gently pull the girl's soul out to be visible. It had been a long time since she or any of the monsters had removed a human's soul from their body.

In front of Cal floated a light blue heart encased in a mass of blue writhing thorny vines. Just as she had said, there was a bramble around her soul. Alphys stared for a moment before quickly pushing Cal's soul back in, her look very panicked as she began to shake. She found her hands clutching Cal's tightly, attempting to offer some sort of reassurance, only to find herself too flustered to do so. 

"Oh my god."


	10. Blue Thorns Blue Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! I was without internet for a good while and only have one chapter to post but hey the story is alive. Even though this chapter is probably gonna stop most people from reading but hey whatever hope you enjoy regardless and I'll have another chapter to post here after a bit. Wavy hand motions

"I'm so g-glad that they believed you were j-just running a fever." Alphys breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the door to her shared home. Lucky for her and Cal, Undyne was off at a restaurant with Papyrus and Taylor, the latter having invited everyone out to eat earlier. "Do you need help getting to the couch?" She turned her attention to Cal, who was already slowly settling in to the couch.

"Nah I'm doing alright. I'm still not.. better but I'm not feeling as bad." She tried to give a reassuring smile, though it seemed to be a bit pained. She hoped it looked more convincing then she felt it came off as. "I feel bad that we didn't go out too, though you could have still gone if you like."

"N-not a chance!" Alphys declared dramatically, pointing her finger at Cal. "You can't show me what your magic is, but I was thinking..." Her demeanor switched back to her usual timid one, "B-but I was thinking you could explain it to me. Why it would need something that would hurt you if you were to use it."

"Well it's difficult to explain..."

"Try." A moment of silence passed before Alphys shifted uncomfortably. "I mean.. If you w-want to. Possibly. Please?" Her words fumbled out of her mouth as a light red crossed her cheeks, probably feeling embarrassed about possibly coming off as rude with her one word response. 

"Well uh, I think I have a pretty simple way to explain it." Cal looked around the room nervously, her eyes shifting to look at everything but Alphys. "You know how like, Papyrus -and I'm assuming Sans too- can like, manifest bones and like blue attacks and turn souls blue and that kind of thing?" At last her gaze met the girl in front of her, a deep blush of embarrassment across her cheeks as she spoke hesitantly.

"OH!" A look of understanding washed over Alphys. "So it's magic that can directly affect a soul as well as having a traditional manifestation! That would surely explain why there'd be some kind of attachment to your magic- or rather a stipulation of sorts. Yes you could really do some damage to other humans but at the cost of damage to yourself, so it would have to only be for emergencies. Yes I completely understand why that decision was made now." She nodded to herself in assurance before registering Cal staring at her nervously. "Oh s-sorry.. I got a bit carried away."

"No you're just fine. That's uh, why my mom told me at least. That it's one of those 'understanding great power with a cost' kind of things." Cal shrugged halfheartedly. "But it's not uh, _like_ their magic it's um, kind of basically just that."

"What do you mean?"

Cal moved her hands around in a comical fashion as she spoke, attempting to emphasize her words. "The bones thing, and the blue soul thing."

"Wait are you serious."

"Well uh.." Cal's eyes began shifting about nervously again. "Mom used to tell me this story that she was told, and grandma was told, and my great grandma and well, you get it. But it was about my ancestor, the uh, one who was blessed. She was maybe like, seven or something. She was really young. But her parents took her to meet these two monsters. Both of them were wearing things similar to cloaks, one had the hood down so they couldn't be seen but the other.. Mom always said she had heard she was tall and hauntingly beautiful, like death itself. My ancestor thought that skeleton was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen."

"Wait wait, ok I am s-sorry Cal but HOLD UP." Alphys held out her hands as if they were against a wall. "So you literally have their magic?! Like, their ancestor blessed your family line!"

"I didn't know!" Cal blurted. "I didn't want to assume because who's to say all skeletons are related!"

"Holy shit Cal."

"I DIDN'T WANT TO BE RUDE!"

"I-" Alphys made a face. "G-guess you're right... But still, why didn't you mention something? I mean, Toriel herself blessed Airi's family line, so why would it be so w-weird to have someone else in the fray?"

"Well I just didn't want to assume.. And so I let some time pass, but then Papyrus gave a demonstration of his magic along with everyone else and Sans has moved Frisk about a couple of times and it was too late for me to just be like 'Well HEY guys guess what I can do too!' or something like that." Cal's volume increased, obviously upset that she had not been able to talk to them sooner.

"Yeah it w-would have been strange but, I'm sure they would have understood. I mean, I understand." Alphys tried to give a reassuring smile with a small shrug. "Though, if you haven't used your magic, how do you know it's the same? It might be a little different- n-not doubting you! J-just an idea..."

"Well..." Cal sighed deeply. "I've seen my brother use his magic. Recklessly."

"The one who's an hour away?"

"No. My other brother. The oldest one."

"Oh. You've never t-talked about him."

"That's uh, because he's dead. Like Dad." 

Alphys brought a clawed hand to her mouth. "Oh my god I'm so sorry. I-I... I didn't know."

"He's actually the one who killed Dad."

"Wh-what?" The color drained from Alphys' face.

Another sigh escaped Cal. "You might wanna sit down for this one." She gave a small laugh as she patted the couch beside her which Alphys did indeed sit down on. "Trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds. But it is essentially what happened. He just used his magic a lot. Like _a lot_. I mean, really Vince wasn't a bad guy, he was just, you know, an angry teenager? He got in to fights and stuff and used his magic since I mean, it is pretty cool. But he got really out of hand, put a kid in the hospital... Both of our parents were pissed but Dad was the one doing the most of the yelling and when Vince tried to make it a fight well, Mom grabbed Eric and I and went upstairs and called the police." Cal spoke casually, as if this was an average story, obviously having had a good amount of time to heal. Despite this Alphys still looked at her with nothing but a new understanding, and pity. "It didn't sound like it got too bad but I guess things got too hectic. They arrived and Dad wasn't breathing and Vince was coughing up blood. Dad was already gone and Vince died on the way to the hospital. It took a long time for Mom to get better. It's part of why she told us to never ever use our magic."

"No wonder you're so afraid of it.." Alphys' voice was hushed but Cal still heard her. "That must have been.. pretty traumatic."

"You'd think but like, I was so young that I don't remember most of it. I don't even have a lot of memories of either of them." Cal gave a small shrug. "More then anything it caused the most grief for Mom. I mean, I didn't even really want to tell her about me getting magic lessons." 

"So your mom doesn't know about the magic lessons?" Alphys looked quite shocked before Cal held up her hands in defense.

"No no- I did tell her. She wasn't too keen on it but I explained it would just be the shield thing, I never really meant to talk about all this, or even mean to keep going really. I didn't think I'd, well.." Cal looked away, a genuine smile crossing her face. "I didn't think I'd make friends." 

"I'm glad that you did though." Cal turned to look at Alphys, seeing the kind smile across the reptile woman's face. "You're a really good friend, and I know everyone thinks so too. But I g-gotta ask... when are you going to tell everyone else?"

Cal looked away once more. "I'm not.. sure. As I said before, I know it's gonna be really difficult. And weird. I mean, look at how all this turned out. And imagine Papyrus and Sans finding out." She turned back to Alphys. "They would freak. Out. Well, Papyrus might be enthusiastic about it but I'm sure Sans wouldn't be too happy about it."

Alphys tilted her head in confusion. "Huh? Why not?"

"Well, I don't think he really likes me. I mean yeah we get along but it's more like he tolerates me more then anything." Cal laughed to herself before giving an awkward shrug. "I mean-"

The door burst open before Cal could finish what she was saying. "WE'RE BACK NERDS!" Undyne laughed and jumped in to the room just as dramatically as she had thrown open the door. Luckily she waited for Papyrus and Sans to step in before slamming the door back closed. "We had fun without you two losers, hope you're doing better though Cal." 

She gave the fish a small wave. "Yeah I'm feeling better. Did you guys have a good time hanging out?"

"OF COURSE WE DID DEAR CAL!" Papyrus gave a dramatic flourish. "I'm very glad you are feeling better though. We were worried." He gave her a concerned smile before motioning to the shorter skeleton beside him. "We found Sans while we were out!"

Cal laughed, Alphys giggling softly beside her. "What do you mean 'found'?"

"I stopped by the same place after my shift today." He gave a trademark halfhearted shrug. "Guess they just needed a _pizza_ me."

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP MAKING THAT JOKE!" Papyrus did that thing where his eyeballs bugged out. How did a skeleton even have eyeballs anyways? Cal just chalked it up to magic, same explanation as San's figure and both of the skeleton's body warmth. They weren't human remains so these strange things should be expected. "IT WASN'T FUNNY THE FIRST TIME YOU MADE IT SO WHY WOULD IT BE NOOOWWW!!"

"What kind of pizza did you guys get?" Cal laughed to herself. "But more importantly did you bring any back with you guys?" 

"Oh shit thanks for reminding me, Sans did you grab that out of the backseat?" Undyne poked her head out of the kitchen. When did she get in there? In response Sans pulled his hands out of his pockets and looked at both of them before giving yet another shrug and pocketing his hands again. "GODDAMNIT SANS!"

With a long fake sigh Papyrus put his hand on Sans' shoulder. "Well brother we'd best go get that pizza before we forget about it again."

"Nah I think I'd rather get something to drink." With a wink he headed towards the kitchen to join Undyne.

"ALRIGHT FINE YOU LAZY BONES!" Papyrus threw his arms in the air before reaching as if he were about to throw open the door, only to gently open it, ushering himself outside.

Cal laughed, "Glad everyone's having fun again, feel bad that we didn't go along with them though." 

"Well if you don't mind staying another night w-we could hang out and have some fun here to make up f-for it." Alphys chuckled a bit as she stood up. "I'll go g-get some soda and snacks before Papyrus brings in the p-pizza and then we'll heat it up."

"Sounds like a plan stan." Cal started to stand slowly. "Mind if I pick out a movie?"

"Knock yourself out." Alphys gave her a small thumbs up. "And Cal, I'm sure everyone would understand." She spoke softer now, a gentle smile on her face. "About your magic." She took two steps before stopping again. "And about Sans-"

"What about me?" The voice came from right beside Cal, as per the usual. She was barely even jumping anymore. 

"OH! N-nothing, just talking about all your puns again." Alphys fumbled over her words, speaking unevenly before laughing.

"That's what I like to hear." He chuckled as the reptile woman continued walking to the kitchen. After a moment he turned his attention to Cal. "Are you really feeling better?" There wasn't a tone of concern to his voice as he asked, confusing Cal.

"Uh, yeah I'm just fine now." Cal picked up a couple movies before attempting to give Sans a reassuring smile. He simply stared at her for a moment, the lights in his eye sockets constricting to pinpricks before he gave a simple 'hmm' and closed his eyes, as if he was doubting her words.

Before either of them could say anything else the door slammed open once again. "HERE I AM WITH THE PIZZA but oh wow I did not mean to throw the door open quite so hard Undyne I am very sorry about that."

"NO MAN THAT WAS AWESOME DO IT AGAIN! TAKE IT OFF THE HINGES!"


	11. Trip to the Underground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! Hope you enjoy the chapter, it's a bit longer then what I typically put out. (also another thing, there's a girl who the group briefly runs in to and she belongs to my friend Martheh! Go check out her tumblr when you can martheh.tumblr.com )

Everyone fell asleep earlier then they expected, asleep on the floor of Alphys and Undyne's living room atop a pile of blankets and pillows. Honestly, Papyrus and Sans weren't supposed to stay over, unlike Cal, but after the latter had fallen asleep Alphys insisted that Papyrus take it easy and stay over as well. The four remaining friends who were awake didn't last that long either, all managing to fall asleep before the movie Cal had put on ended, the menu screen being left alone to repeat as they all slept.

Cal woke up gently to the smell of pancakes wafting through the air. Or rather wafting directly at her courtesy of Sans and a baking pan. She rubbed her eyes gave him a confused look, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Getting to you _rise_ and shine." He stopped waving the pan through the air. "Pap's been making pancakes for about an hour now. Figured you'd want in before you gotta get ready to go."

"Oh shit seriously? Sounds great." Cal shuffled herself up to a sitting position and pulled her jacket back up on to her shoulders. Oops, hadn't meant to sleep in that. She stretched her arms out and up, popping her back before continuing to shuffle about as she started to stand. "Alphys and Undyne awake?" 

"YOU DAMN WELL KNOW IT!"

"Well that sure answers your question." Sans chuckled to himself before heading into the kitchen with the others. Cal stretched once more, feeling the stiffness from sleeping in jeans and a hoodie of all things, before heading in after him. Cal wasn't quite sure what she was expecting but it wasn't to see quite the pile of pancakes that she was met with. 

"Holy crap you really buckled down and made some pancakes huh?" She laughed softly as she gestured to the large stack. 

"I would have made more but I was asked very politely to stop." Papyrus sat at the small breakfast nook with Alphys, having just started to eat while Alphys herself was about halfway through the pancakes on her plate.

"They're v-very delicious but we simply didn't need that many." The reptile woman gave him a gentle and apologetic smile. "I still can't thank you enough for making them though, if it weren't for you I'm sure we'd all still be asleep..."

"Maybe _you guys_ would be but I know Pap and I are trained warriors so we wake up AT THE CRACK OF DAWN LIKE TRUE CHAMPIONS!" Undyne flexed off by herself as she threw open the cabinet in retrieval of some tupperware to put the extra pancakes in. Cal was careful to duck under her as she grabbed a couple pancakes for herself without getting accidentally smacked by a bicep. 

"Hey we don't sleep in that long." Cal laughed as she dodged another flex and topped her pancakes with syrup before backing away to start eating them. "Oh wow these are great Papyrus."

"I'm aware that they are great but am pleased that you think so too!" Papyrus nodded to himself before crossing his arms. "Though really, the three of you sleep for far too long!"

"Just because you guys typically only nap doesn't mean us sleeping regularly is too long." Cal chuckled a bit before she stuffed more pancakes in to her mouth. 

Undyne roared before throwing the container she had just gotten at Cal. "I'M EXCITED OKAY!"

+

The usual group stood outside the entrance to the underground. It had used to be a simple hole in the side of the mountain but since the renovations it had been closed off by double doors leading into the palace- now more of a museum to be honest. Another entrance had been opened up near a town by the base of the mountain, it led straight in to one of the underground towns, allowing humans easy access to the recently opened up affordable living space. A good number of monsters still lived underground, not wanting to vacate their homes, but the now empty residences had been offered to humans who were brave enough to adjust to a whole new living environment. So far the results had only been positive.

Everyone was rather nervous as they shuffled inside, the humans worried about being properly respectful and the monsters about returning after so long. The only one who didn't seem to have some kind of apprehension was Asgore, ushering everyone in happily. He shut the door behind him as everyone gaped at the entrance, full of photos of the underground and text about the old war. He gave one sweeping motion to the various things on the walls. "Welcome to the finally completed old castle! It is, more of a museum now but it used to be my home. I'm very happy with how things have progressed."

The humans nodded politely yet stiffened. They often forgot that they were lucky enough to be familiar with someone who was once king of entire monster race. Perhaps it was forgotten due to his typical silly fatherly attire and his penchant for gardening. When he was not away on diplomatic business he was typically helping with chores around Toriel's home or watching over Frisk. Cal had learned that the two had divorced long ago but had started to warm up to one another once more. She wasn't sure if they'd ever be together again romantically but they were both good friends and supportive parental figures to young Frisk.

The former king lead them through the rooms with a fatigued grace, a gentle smile on his face but a dull sadness in his eyes. He pointed out all the paintings and statues, telling the story behind each of them when he could. The monsters all kept quiet, occasionally commenting on something or getting excited about a piece of information, but they all tried to be respectful in the old king's former home.

As they reached a flourishing indoor garden no one spoke a word and Asgore rested his hand on Toriel's shoulder comfortingly, pained expressions on both of their faces. After anxiously clearing his throat Asgore offered that perhaps they all have tea here another time and lead them to move on. 

None of the other rooms seemed to cause quite a stir, everyone becoming lively again as they made their way through. The only passing incident of Undyne attempting to take a rather large sword down from a wall despite the group's protests. 

After exiting the old castle they entered the hotlands, Alphys explaining where various puzzles and obstacles used to be, saying that it's a shame Frisk couldn't come along since she was sure they'd love to see how simple it was to get from point A to B now. The group would have spent longer exploring but Undyne ushered them on, saying that "waterfall was better" and "hotland was a muggy hell hole how did you even live here Alphys why would you DO that to yourself?"

They entered waterfall, easily impressed by the beautiful glowing environment. They all explored where they could, touching glowing mushrooms, talking to echo flowers, and petting the occasional Temmie. Cal found herself getting swept away by Undyne and Alphys, the former wanting to check out her old home. They arrived in front of a home that looked very similar to a large angry fish monster. Cal chuckled to herself, finding it fitting, before she gasped anxiously as Undyne simply went to the front door and gave it a booming knock.

"Undyne you might scare whoever is living here!" Alphys placed her hands on Undyne's side, trying to usher her away from the home. "M-maybe we should just leave.."

"No way! I wanna see if the chump living here is cool enough for my old place!" Her hands found her hips as she posed dramatically. She kept still for a few moments before her pose fell a bit, waiting longer then she would have liked. After about a minute the door slowly crept open.

"Um.. H-hello?" A red haired girl in a rather thick sweater poked her head out, pushing her glasses up her nose nervously.

Before saying a word Undyne shoved the door the rest of the way open and let herself inside, gaining a squeak from the girl and an appalled gasp from Alphys. "WHAT'S UP I used to live here and wanna see what you did with the place."

Alphys moved towards the girl quickly. "I am so so s-sorry she just gets excited I can g-get her out if you w-want. I am so sorry."

The girl laughed nervously. "Well, if she just wants to look around I uh.. I guess it should be ok. Uh, hi I'm Rae." She was flushed red and shaking a little bit, obviously trying to keep it together despite being on the edge of a panic attack. She jumped a little bit when Alphys rested a reassuring hand on top of one of her own.

Cal stepped a bit closer and gave her a quick wave, thinking that perhaps having a human nearby might calm the girls nerves. Yeah she lived around monsters but monsters in general still had a tendency to put humans on edge. "Hey there. I'm Cal. Nice to meet you." She gave Rae a nod and got a small one back. "I can go inside real quick and get Undyne out of there. Oh, that's the fish lady's name. In case you were wondering. Probably. I mean she did break into your home. Kinda. Ok I'm sorry I'll go get her." 

Cal nervously laughed and shot off into the house, finding Undyne examining the living room. "HEY CAL CHECK THIS PLACE OUT! It doesn't look half bad you know. Maybe she's cool enough to live here after all."

"Ok but you gotta go c'mon you nearly gave that girl a heart attack like damn. Imagine first meeting Alphys not at the dump but you breaking in to her home or something." Cal grabbed the woman's arm and tried gently pulling her to the door.

For a moment a look of embarrassment seemed to cross Undyne's face before she broke out into a broad grin. "That's right! We've gotta show you guys the dump! It's a pretty awesome place." She nodded to herself and started heading to the door. "We gotta blow this joint and get on to the important places anyways." Cal followed her out of the home, giving a small sorry to Rae once more.

"It's alright." She gave a small smile, seeming a lot calmer now since she had probably been talking to Alphys while they were inside. "I hope uh, that you like what I've done with the place.. It had a lot of fire damage when I moved in."

Undyne placed her hands firmly on the girl's shoulders, getting yet another squeak. "It was pretty rad, you did a good job kid, but we got shit we gotta do elsewhere. See you later chump!" A rather large grin spread over her face, trying to reassure the girl only to get a nervous smile back.

"W-well I'm glad just uh.. I'd be really happy if you maybe give me some time to be prepared next time.." She shuffled about uncomfortably. 

With the small gesture Undyne began to walk off, leaving Cal and Alphys to apologize once more to the girl, who reassured them it was fine despite how shaken she looked, before they all shuffled off. Cal gave Alphys a pat on the back and promised they'd finally finish Mew Mew Kissy Cutie tonight she will do it for her.

They made their way to the dump, or rather what used to be the dump as it now had housing built in that area. Both of the girls were upset until they found a small patch of echo flowers and decided that it would carry the memory of when they first met. Alphys was rather happy with it but Undyne seemed to be rather grumpy, crossing her arms and mumbling that it was fine she guessed.

After a bit more wandering the group reconvened at the edge of waterfall, the monsters talking about how it was so weird seeing all the new homes in the underground and the humans just being amazed in general. Taylor lamented on attempting to take an echo flower, she had been prepared to pick it but it softly echoed out "You really do mean the world to me." and she couldn't bring herself to do it. She claimed that she had nearly cried resulting in Undyne ribbing her about it all the way to the edge of snowdin.

Once again everyone split off and went exploring, enjoying the sweet aura of the small town. Apparently it had gotten a bit bigger but was still relatively small compared to the other towns in the underground. Cal found herself staring at a rather cute home covered in christmas lights. 

"OH HUMAN! You found our old home!" Papyrus stepped between her and the home, gesturing to it happily. As he went to open the door Cal gasped and tried to pull him away. "Is there a problem Cal?"

"Undyne just barged into someone's home and I just didn't want to scare whoever lives here now is all." She looked away nervously, her hands tensing and relaxing around his arm bones.

"Well that's no problem because no one lives here now!" Papyrus smiled and reached his other arm to give Cal a reassuring pat on the head, ruffling her brown hair a bit. "We have yet to decide if we're selling or not so this is still our home, though it is old. BUT DO NOT GET ME WRONG! Just because it is old does not mean it is not good. Here-" He brought her closer, her hands still around his arm as he pulled out a set of keys and unlocked and opened the door. "-take a look inside! It's rather empty but we needed to check in on it anyways."

Cal looked beyond the happy skeleton and saw that the home was devoid of any furniture, leaving it dark and empty until the light switch was flicked on, then it was just empty. Removing her hands from the skeleton finally Cal curiously stepped inside the home.


	12. Unburied Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow hey sorry about the wait! Hope you enjoy the new chapter, don't worry we're getting to the good stuff soon.

As soon as Cal's eyes adjusted to the slight darkness she noted how similar the home was to the one the brothers currently shared. Granted this house was very empty in comparison, patches of discoloration on the walls and carpet from where their furniture had been obviously placed for years. She wandered to the middle of the room, noting that where as in the other home there were two doors, closet and bathroom, there were none along the leftmost wall from the door. She had heard that monster food was simply absorbed in to pure energy, explaining the lack of bathroom in a home where they'd never expect a human guest. Her head turned to the side, spying something very tall in the kitchen. Upon inspection it proved to simply be a very tall sink. Despite herself she found a loud laugh escaping from herself in surprise. Seriously why was their sink so damn tall?

Papyrus' voice carried easily from the living room, a slight echo due to the home's empty state, “Are you alright friend? Is there something humorous in the kitchen?” 

“No no I just thought of something is all.” Cal chuckled softly and left the kitchen, giving a small reassuring wave to the tall skeleton. There had to be a reason for it so perhaps it was best to not give the impression that she was making fun of it. 

After a moment of silence passed a mischievous smile crossed the girl's face. “Can I go look at your old rooms?”

“Why of course! You are more then welcome to! You have already seen my room at our new home, so if you are curious to see our old empty rooms there is no problem!” His grin stretched wider as he began to head towards the stairs, soon followed by Cal herself.

As they reached the top of the stairs Papyrus went to open the door to his own room, only to be sidestepped around by Cal. She very quickly walked down the hall towards the only other room on the upstairs floor. By the time she reached for the door in front of her the skeleton she had abandoned was on his way to join her. Her hand grazed the knob for a moment, feeling as if she was going behind her friend's back to spy in to his room, but she reassured herself that she had gotten an ok and well they hadn't lived here for a good long while. With a small nod herself she grabbed the knob and opened the door, her eyes widening as they took in the sight before her.

It was a tornado. Well, a small one that seemed to be full of trash. As it slowly swept around the room Cal could understand why it was left behind while another part of her wondered if Sans had somehow managed to make another one in his new room. She was pulled from her thoughts as the monster beside her let out a rather large irritated huff, “Really now? I thought I told Sans to pick that thing up before we left and- OH GOD WHAT IS THAT?”

He pointed at a bundle of wadded up papers that seemed to be moving independently from the tornado and seemed to have a tail? No wait there was a little white dog in there! Cal's mouth opened in a cry of disbelief at the poor thing being swirled around before it simply leapt out of the chaos like had leapt off of a bed. Before she could move towards the small thing it had managed to run over to the skeleton beside her and jump up in to his chest. However what Cal was not expecting was Papyrus to begin yelling like he had been hit with mud instead of a cute dog. She couldn't help herself from doubling over with laughter as the two banged around the hallway for a moment before chasing one another down the stairs. 

After things quieted down and Cal stopped laughing she wiped her eyes looked at the room once more. It was empty aside from the tornado so with a soft smile she simply shut the door and head back to Papyrus' room. She glanced down the stairs, hearing the skeleton in question's voice carrying inside as he rambled about being attacked by the small dog to someone outside with him. A chuckle passed her lips before she opened the door to her side, stepping inside the final room.

Unsurprisingly it was as empty as all the others, brighter areas standing out from where a multitude of posters must have hung on the sun bleached walls. How did that even work anyways? There was no sun underground. Honestly it was probably through some sort of daytime magic Cal mused to herself. Her eyes traveled across the room before stopping at a difference in color along the wall, about thigh high. She approached it and bent down to examine the lines, discovering that they were merely simple crayon drawings. Despite herself Cal found her eyes welling up with tears at the sight of them.

“You doin' ok there?” The baritone voice came from beside her, echoing off of the walls. Cal gave a small laugh in defeat at being caught crying before she finally stood.

“You guys must have lived here your whole lives huh?” She gave the monster beside her a small smile. He simply mirrored her sad smile and looked away in response. “It must have been… Really hard to move out of this place.”

Cal expected Sans to shrug but found him shaking his head no. “Not really. I mean yeah this is all we knew but...” The lights in his eyes widened ever so slightly as they seemed to sparkle, “There's just so much more up on the surface. Even being able to just look up and see all those stars… That alone makes leaving this place worth it.” He gave her a genuine grin before chuckling to himself for a moment. The girl found herself laughing softly as well, unable to help herself from feeling the happiness radiating off of him. As one of the tears still pooling in the corners of her eyes finally fell across her cheek his hand quickly reached out and wiped it off of the top of her cheek, the motion making Cal's eyes widen in surprise both from the act in general but also how surprisingly warm his fingertips were.

As quickly as his hand was on her face it was pulled away, his eyes shifting uncomfortably as he began to stammer out an apology. “No no oh my gosh you're completely fine don't worry about it.” Cal beamed at him happily, her brow furrowing slightly in confusion as to the warmth rising her in face. “I'm just sorry for getting all emotional and stuff.” She ran a hand through her long brown hair and laughed a bit awkwardly as she attempted to reassure him that nothing wrong was done.

This time a more genuine laugh came from him. “Nah you're the one who's fine here. I guess it's kinda weird for me to not be emotional about this?” He chuckled again. “But hey, why stay in this old place when we can go see what everyone else is up to? I think they were gonna check out this little cafe place that just opened up here?”

Cal perked up almost immediately at the words. “There's a cafe here? Oh man then let's not keep everyone waiting!” She nearly bounded out the room and down the stairs in excitement, leaving Sans' surprised laughter at her enthusiasm echoing in the home behind her.

+

As the group once again came together they found themselves in the newly opened cafe, a small warm place that mostly sold cute magical cinnamon rolls and sweet coffee. After they all paused to partake in the cafe and mingle about everyone gathered up their things and continued to move on to the ruins. Before the group could exit the building though Toriel gave them a sad goodbye, stating that she would wait for their return while she sipped a mellow tea. Outside they paused once more, Asgore taking a moment to explain that it was hard for his former queen to enter the ruins, as it was her former home, and now served mostly as a memorial.

They all progressed solemnly, heading down a rather lengthy hallway on their way to what they were told used to be a small home that belonged to Toriel. Everyone emerged from the long hallway, surprised to see the home had been opened up and expanded in to a library and lounge, finding a multitude of books on monster culture and biology, along with a few about humans. They took their time exploring through the various media, asking questions to their companions about various book's contents when necessary. After a while a few of the humans found themselves wandering further, seeing many areas taped off due to ongoing construction.

Cal and Taylor found themselves wandering off together, following the path farther then most of the others wanted to tread. Little talk passed between them as they took in the sights of the old structures and currently being built homes and buildings. Yes the underground was small compared to all of the world but really it was much larger then either of them had pictured. 

The duo came to a pause as they caught a glimpse of what appeared to be figures in the distance. After seeing no movement they approached a cluster of golden flowers, light seeping in from above. With a quick glance Cal noted that there was a rope mesh across the hole in the ceiling, preventing anyone from falling down. As her gaze went back down to what was before them she found herself quickly sucking in a gasp of surprise.

It was a ring of statues, looking like eight stone children playing together, hands linked as they spun around the lush golden flowers. Cal's hand reached out hesitantly to touch the one child that was a monster, goat-like in appearance. “He looks just like-”

“My son. Yes that is him.” The voice rumbled low from behind the two girls, causing them to whirl around in surprise in worry that they had intruded upon something private. Asgore simply gazed at them kindly as he approached them slowly. “Along with my other dear child.” His visually wilted, sadness written plainly across his giant form. “And the other children I so selfishly killed in my grief.”

Taylor spoke first, “Well I mean they weren't all by your hand so-”

The defeated king simply shook his head. “It was by my order. The blame lies on no one but me. I have accepted that, and I will never forget the sacrifices made in my misguided anger. It is important to remember them.” A sad smile tugged at his lips wistfully. “I made sure they were made as close to each child's likeness as possible so everyone can properly know. They deserve so much more but… It is what I can do.”

Cal placed her hand on his arm gently, his size making her feel like she was a child attempting to comfort a parent. It made her feel like her attempts were in vein. “You understand what you did was wrong, and that's very important. I'm sure as long as you're working towards a better future everyone will understand. I mean, they are understanding, right?” Her words grew softer as she continued speaking.

Despite the girl's worries Asgore gave her a knowing grin. “That is all I wish to do now, child. I will do what I can to give every monster the future I had denied them for so, so very long. Even if they hate me for what I have done in the past I will fight for them with everything I have left. That is what I owe my people.” His gaze drifted toward the statues once more. “I only wish there was more I could do for them.”

She moved closer to the forlorn giant in an attempt to look him in the eyes. “It's tragic but… It's still the past. It's more important to focus your strength on those who are still living, those who need your help.” Her words seemed to comfort the man only slightly, his smile spreading ever so slightly to his eyes before he gave a small nod. Before Cal could add anything else to her attempt at a motivation speech he reached his hand out slowly and plucked a single golden flower from the edge of the small patch. He brought it close, twirling it ever so slightly between his large fingertips before moving to lace it behind the girl's ear.

“I understand why the others get along with you so well. We are all haunted by things of the past, but you care for nothing but attempting to quell them.” His hand left her as his attention turned away once more. “You are free to stay but I… I think I'd like to stay here for a moment with my thoughts.”

Cal nodded slowly before turning her attention towards Taylor, who mirrored the nod as she extended an arm out to her friend. The two silently joined hands and left the weary king to mourn by himself.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in seeing any art related to this story, by me or friends, feel free to stop by my side tumblr where I have a tag just for this nonsense. http://visceraking.tumblr.com/tagged/cal-related


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